Power Made you Blind
by FullMetalPon-3
Summary: A new population of monsters has appeared, and the gods are worried by their ability to absorb souls. However, knowing that the key to their victory lies in a small child, they send off their own children to get it for themselves. Can the monsters convince them of their folly? Or will it be GAME OVER for good?
1. Along Came a Spider

**New fanfic! Not sure what'll happen with this one, but I'll try my best! Sorry if some of the PJ characters are OOC, I haven't read the books for a super long time.**

 **Belongs to Rick Riordan and Toby Fox.**

Zeus sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in order to stop the oncoming godly headache. After the battle against those monsters several hundred years ago, they couldn't be back. They just couldn't.

The acceptance of mortals surprised him once again. While still rather wary, they had warmed up the monsters rather quickly, and enjoyed their differences.

 _If only they knew their true nature_ , Zeus thought.

"Father?" asked a woman near his throne. He looked up and saw his daughter, Athena. "I know you are worried about the monsters, but they are not the main problem right now. What we really have to be chary of is the one who freed them."

Zeus cringed. "Yes, the mortal, if they could be called that. The human child. Not a drop of god-blood in them. To think they would be the one to receive that power."

"It is the state of mind that matters, not the body," she said, reinforcing the wisdom she represented. "As surprising as it is, their DETERMINATION surpasses that of any other being, even Gaea. No wonder the monsters want them as their ally."

She took a deep breath. "However, their resolve may be their undoing." She told her father of her idea. Zeus's eyes widened at the simplicity.

"Of course," he whispered. "It will still be difficult, but if we could harness that power for ourselves..."

"Then perhaps we could be respected as we once were, and truly rid the world of monsters," Athena finished.

Zeus stood up. "Gather the gods. We must let them know of this."

….

It was a beautiful day outside. Birds were singing… Flowers were blooming… on days like these… the members of Camp Half-Blood… were playing a game of volleyball. Specifically, six demigods from the Prophecy of Seven were playing. It was girls vs. boys.

"You spike like a girl, Jason!" Annabeth called.

"You spike too much like a guy," he yelled back as he hastily raced to hit the ball back towards her. Unfortunately, it went out of bounds.

The girls cheered. "We're tied now!"

"Nice job, Jason," Percy muttered.

"Hey, it's not my fault your girlfriend's a crazy-strong maniac!"

"What did you just say?!" Annabeth fumed.

Soon instead of volleyball, everyone had pulled out their various weapons and were taunting each other like a bunch of crazy maniacs.

This went on for about ten minutes, when everyone decided that they'd had enough and went to the big house to raid the fridge for Kool Aid. They had hoped they could just sneak in, grab the snacks, and sneak out again, but instead, a very unusual sight met their eyes.

Chiron sat in his wheelchair (not unusual), talking to a man in a mailman's uniform. He had curly brown hair and smile lines around his eyes. He had a mailbag over his one shoulder, and held a staff with two argumentative snakes on the other.

"Ah," Chiron said when he noticed them. "Hermes and I were just talking about you. Please, take a seat."

When two immortal guys, one of whom was a god, were talking about you behind your back, you knew that there was trouble.

Nevertheless, they took a seat on the ground.

Hermes looked out the window. "So, uh… I know you guys have been really busy lately, but… Have you heard about the integration of Monsters into society?"

Hazel spoke up. "You mean, monster disguising themselves as teachers so they could prey on demigods?"

"No," Hermes said. "I mean, these Monsters aren't like the ones you're thinking of." He looked to Chiron for help.

Chiron sighed and placed a hand on his head. "A few weeks ago, an enormous population of about fifteen-thousand monsters broke through a barrier keeping them underground, and decided to live on the surface." The demigods could not mask their horror. "But they aren't like the monsters you are used to. They are not disguised by mist, and are extremely talented magic users. They are of an entirely different species than the ones that prey on demigods"

"Then what's the problem?" Percy asked. "I mean, that's really weird, but if they're not dangerous, do we have to worry about them? I could do with fewer enemies."

Annabeth elbowed him. She didn't want her boyfriend to get turned into a tortoise or something for being impatient.

"I really wish we didn't have to worry about them either," Hermes agreed. "But the problem is, these monsters warred with humanity a very long time ago, because these monsters can absorb human souls."

The demigods processed this information. "What does that mean?" Piper asked.

"Well, a human soul has immense power, greater than a monster soul," Chiron explained. "If a monster were to absorb it, their power and magic levels would explode. They would become… godlike."

Hermes nodded. "It's only a matter of time before the monsters get the same idea, and attack humanity again."

"So, drive them back underground?" Jason asked.

"When the monsters were trapped, they were desperate to break the barrier by killing humans who had fallen down," Hermes replied. "If they were driven back, it would simply fuel their hatred. They need to be exterminated."

That hung over the group like a heavy fog. "Where would we find them?" Hazel enquired.

"They have set up a 'camp' in Ohio, for monsters that need a break from humanity," Chiron explained. "Only a small portion of the monsters are there, but it is a good start."

"But you can't worry about the monsters themselves now!" Hermes told them. "When the monsters left the Underground, a child helped them. They look human, but in reality, they are a demon that wishes for nothing more than the destruction of humanity. They are the one who wants to keep the monsters on the surface so that they will wipe out all humans. They are far more dangerous than the monsters are."

That was disturbing. They thought back to the eidolons that had possessed Percy and Jason in the past. The thought of facing another one was not inviting.

"Two more things," Hermes continued. But a shrill shriek broke through whatever he was going to say.

"Spider!" Annabeth screamed, pointing at a large spider on the wall. She grabbed her dagger and prepared to smash it with the flat of her blade, but it crawled out the window, and far away before she could hurt it.

She noticed everyone was staring at her, and cleared her throat. "Uh, continue, Lord Hermes."

"Uh… right. Um, first, the monsters also gained a power called RESET when they left," he said. "It allows them to go back in time to when they were in the Underground in case they get hurt. That way, they never lose any important monsters. Unfortunately, the demon that let them out is the one with control over that power."

Annabeth shivered. "So they'll use it to the advantage of the monsters?"

"Yeah, but it's annoying for them, because they have to wait until time catches up again, so they prefer not to, unless necessary. You have to bring them to Olympus, and we know a way that we can take the power from them," Hermes explained. "Don't kill them; it'll automatically reset everything."

He took a deep breath. "The second is that we have a prophecy to go with this event." He looked at his caduceus. "George, could you give us the prophecy?"

"Sure thing, boss," George replied, startling a few of the demigods. He regurgitated a small scroll, which, funnily enough, seemed perfectly dry. None of the demigods particularly wanted to touch it, but they tentatively took it anyway.

Piper unfolded it and gulped. She looked up, a little afraid. "Okay, The Prophecy of Monsters:

 _Six leaders of death_

 _Friends of the foe_

 _Should they conquer all_

 _The world fills with woe_

 _Beware of the verses_

 _Poison tells truth_

 _The Judge will guide you_

 _As he protects youth_

 _Choose to spare or fight_

 _Remember what is right_

 _Should the Angel be forced to fall_

 _Demon's darkness devours all."_

That sounded rather grim. "Six leaders of death…" Percy muttered. "Nice, sounds fun."

"Actually," Martha, Hermes' other snake, said, "we think we know what that means. Some very powerful monsters have a special type of soul, so they're called boss monsters. There are two boss monsters, but there are four other monsters that are regarded as almost equal in magical prowess. They don't literally control death; they just have the ability to cause it."

"Gee, that's a relief," Jason whispered sarcastically under his breath.

"Martha's right," Hermes agreed. "Unfortunately, we do not know who the 'judge' or 'angel' is. Even gods can only read so far into the future."

They looked at each other uncomfortably. "Well, there are six monsters; I guess we should bring six demigods. That would be us," Annabeth said finally.

"That's probably a good idea," Hermes approved. "They are very powerful, so it's not a good idea to fight more than one at a time. But you had better hurry. The longer the monsters are left to their own, the more likely they are to attack."

The demigods nodded, a little reluctantly. They had just gone on a horrible, long, and painful mission recently. They were in no hurry to start one again, even if it was for their parents.

….

As they left, Chiron dropped his tired front, and scowled. "I notice how you said inhabited, not possessed. That child is a hero to the monsters. Why are you willing to go so far just to gain a power you desire?" he demanded.

Hermes sighed. "Remember, Chiron. We were merciful to you, despite who sired you. Gods need to be respected, and this is a power a mortal cannot have. Besides, the monsters are a threat if they gain the power of the human SOUL. Do not try interfere." He disappeared after telling him this.

Chiron said nothing, and simply continued his cold glare. He wanted nothing more than his students to be safe, but he couldn't go against the gods. 'I hope the monsters have more sense than the gods do,' he silently wished. He felt as though the gods were so desperate for their respect to be restored, they would stop at nothing, even murder of an innocent mortal, to get it back. 'Whoever the judge and angel are, please protect my students.'

…

The spider hurriedly crawled out the window, after almost being stabbed. It rushed through the camp, unnoticed, and made it to the trees, where, it resolutely continued to make the trek to its destination. It was smart, so once it got to the city it hitched a ride on a bus, hiding under a seat so it wouldn't scare anyone. It traveled from bus to bus, until, at last, it reached another large city.

It continued, its resolve unwavering, never thinking of stopping until it reached its destination. Finally, it made it to a small shop painted bright purple. It slipped through the mail slot, and climbed up the wall. There, it found the person it had been looking for.

"Have a nice day!" Muffet said cheerfully, waving one of her six hands in goodbye to the customer she had just served.

The spider let a dragline down to the floor, and crawled up to reach her ear.

"Oh, hello!" she greeted. "I haven't seen you for a while! What's wrong?" she asked, blinking her five eyes in concern.

The spider whispered the disturbing things it had overheard. Muffet gulped. "Are you absolutely sure?"

The spider nodded.

She tightened one of her pigtails in nervousness. "Excuse me!" she called to all of the customers eating in her café. "I'm sorry, but this shop is closing early today! Something very important has come up!"

Some of the humans grumbled a bit about being kicked out, but left anyway. The monsters looked pretty annoyed as well. Except for one.

"Oooooooh, okay..." the ghost monster agreed gloomily. It picked up its ghost donut and prepared to leave.

"Wait! Napstablook!" she called. "You stay! I need you to go to the monster camp and deliver this message."

"I-if you're sure you want my help," he said, tears forming in the corners of his large white eyes.

She nodded solemnly. "I need you to get your cousin, and the rest of the boss monsters here. Something rather worrisome has come up." She took on a lighter tone. "Ahuhuhu! And here I thought I was going to use my magic for nothing but baking pastries for the rest of my life. This might be fun!"

 **Leave it to the gods to take things out of context. *Slow clap processor***

 **Can you guess the boss monsters? You may be surprised by some of them.**


	2. Not For them, but for THEM

**Wasn't gonna update, but you guys all seemed like you wanted more, so a little earlier than intended. Thanks followers and favoriters, but the only reason you get this early is because of my four kind reviewers.**

 **Belongs to Toby Fox and Rick Riordan.**

"So, we have to take on a population of monsters, in order to get a demon-possessed kid to the gods?" Nico asked, once they had briefed him on the current situation.

"Pretty much and it sucks," Jason replied. They piled their backpacks into the Jeep that the camp had let Percy borrow for their quest.

"And we can't let them get our souls…" Nico muttered. "Why am I coming again?"

Jason slammed the trunk up. "You're the expert on souls, and apparently they can absorb human souls. You don't have to fight."

"What a relief…"

Jason clapped his shoulder. Nico shuddered from the physical contact. "Chill, man, it'll turn out okay."

"Is everybody ready?" Annabeth called from the shotgun seat.

Nico sighed. "Yeah."

They hopped in, and Percy started the engine. "Let's get this show on the road."

…

In about an hour, Muffet's Monster Pastries had gathered a peculiar group of monsters. They did not take up all of the seats, but they were loud enough to account for a whole crowd on a busy Saturday.

There were 8 monsters in total, including Muffet.

There was Napstablook and his cousin, Hapstablook. When he was possessing his metal body, they called him Mettaton, but today, he was simply in his ghost form. They didn't know his real name, so everyone just called him his nickname.

There was Papyrus and Sans, the skeleton brothers. She wasn't really sure why Sans was here; as far as she knew, he was actually weaker than most monsters, certainly not a boss monster.

Undyne, the fish monster former head of the royal guard, was there, as well. Usually, Alphys was with her, but Undyne said she was keeping an eye on her brother and Frisk.

Finally, Toriel and Asgore were there as well. They were back on speaking terms, though Toriel was somewhat formal when speaking to him. She, however, did not sit next to him. Instead, she sat next to Sans and Undyne.

Muffet had already told everyone of the troublesome news that her spider had reported. "She also told me that the camp doesn't seem like a normal human one. The kids there climb walls with lava, and practice sword fighting. And there are flying horses… Apparently, some of them have strange powers, too!"

Asgore spoke, "Well, there were humans that could use magic; the barrier was created by human magicians, after all."

Papyrus jumped up. "JUST BECAUSE THEY CAN USE MAGIC, DOESN'T MAKE THEM UNFRIENDLY! UNDYNE IS THE BEST MAGIC USER I KNOW AND SHE'S ALSO BEST FRIENDS WITH THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"

"Aw, thanks, punk!" She picked up a chair and affectionately smashed it into his head so hard it bent the metal legs.

"O-ow…" he groaned.

"Could you please not bend my chairs?" Muffet asked politely, but with literal venom in her voice. It dripped down her fangs. "You'll have to replace them if you do."

"bro, i think you're kinda getting off track," Sans said. "we know they're not good news if they said those awful things about frisk. i mean, it's not like we should kill them, but i wouldn't treat them like friends…"

"SANS, YOU SIMPLY FAIL TO UNDERSTAND THAT EVERYONE HAS GOOD IN THEM," Papyrus retorted. "EVEN IF… THEY DO SAY THE BEST HUMAN EVER IS A DEMON…" Even he seemed a little worried by that.

Toriel sighed. "Unfortunately, Papyrus, Sans is right. We cannot kill them, obviously, nor should we," she sent a glare to Asgore, who sunk deep into his shirt, "but Frisk is my child, and I am willing to fight tooth and nail to protect them."

Hapstablook floated up. "Well, if it means I get to show off my fabulousness to some poor, ignorant humans, as well as protect our darling little Frisk, I'll do it!"

"O-oh, I wish I could be as helpful as you boss monsters…" Napstablook fretted.

"ah, don't worry, blooks," Sans comforted. "you're stronger than me; i'm not even a minor boss monster." He shrugged. "but i do worry about frisk, so i'm definitely gonna keep these guys away from them."

"So, from what we heard, they're going to go to our camp," Undyne stated, "and try to get Frisk. But there's no way in Hell that's happening!" She grabbed the chair and smashed it into the floor, successfully detaching the seat from the legs.

While Muffet calculated how much it would be to replace, the rest of the monster strategized. Except for Napstablook and Sans. Napstablook started crying about how useless he was, and Sans took a nap. Little 'Z's floated out of his eternally closed mouth as he slept. Napstablook started crying harder because he wished he could do that, too.

"So, there are six boss monsters," Undyne said. "And the spider said there were six kids they were sending, right?"

Muffet snapped out of her counting. "Huh? Oh, yes, that's right."

"So, we just send one boss per each of those stupid kids, snap their little necks-!" she snapped the metal leg of the chair in her bare hands, "but don't kill them, and send them back where they came from!"

"WOWIE, UNDYNE!" Papyrus marveled. "I THOUGHT HUMANS HAD REALLY DELICATE NECKS, LIKE SKELETONS! WON'T THAT HURT A LOT?"

"Let's find out!" and she chased him around the café, no intention of actually hurting him. This went on until Papyrus tripped over the leg of a chair, and landed on a table, with Undyne right after him. The table smashed under the combined weight and force of the two.

"Could you please stop breaking my property?" Muffet asked, even more politely, her smile growing wider, and the venom dripping more heavily down her fangs.

"SORRY, SPIDER-LADY!" Papyrus apologized. "WE'LL CLEAN IT UP!"

"Muffet, you're a boss, too," Undyne said. "Are you going to help?"

Muffet closed four of her eyes in annoyance. "I suppose so. My spiders can make the pastries, and they are all quite literate, so even stupid humans should be able to understand them."

"Then it's settled," Toriel said with finality in her voice. "Papyrus, Undyne, Mettaton, Muffet, my husband, and I… We will protect Frisk." She took on a more solemn tone. "This isn't just for them, or for us; this is for all monsters. Frisk represents our hopes and our dreams. Without them, we wouldn't be able to enjoy everything the surface has given to us. Some of us would have never seen our families again," she gave Asgore a tiny smile ( _VERY_ tiny)," and some of us would be very 'bonely' without making so many new friends."

Papyrus and Undyne groaned, but Sans, who was awake again, chuckled. "never gets old."

"Frisk may be our image of freedom, but this is about all monsterkind!" The monsters nodded seriously, even Napstablook and Sans. "And we will never go back to the way we were."

The monsters made noises of agreement. It was nice to have so many different types, ghost, boss species, fish, skeleton, and spider, in agreement, though normally they differed greatly.

"Now," Muffet broke the silence. "About paying for that chair and table."

 **It doesn't matter that Muffet's left the Underground. She's still stingy. Or fangy. Or "my little sister is annoying". She told me to say that.**

 **Thanks to my sister, who counted the monsters right. It took eight tries just for me to realize I was counting them wrong. Guess I should've payed more attention in preschool. She's also better at Undertale than I am, and she's a lot younger.**


	3. A Sign

**I remember when I first heard Papyrus' name, I was like, wut? Now I forget it was ever a word before it was his name.**

 **A few answers to some reviewers:**

 **Cinnamaemae: Yeah, sorry about that. He is joining them. I will go back and fix it, but I need to write more first.**

dog1056: **It was because of you I decided to update early.**

 **That Guy From Walmart: Don't worry, it wasn't a dumb question. He will be awesome, but not till the very end.**

 **Guest: That will happen.**

 **Dragon: YES IT FILLS ME WITH DETERMINATION**

 **Personaqeminod1: I will make them fight, but not under the circumstances you are probably thinking of.**

 **Juxshoa: That's what I'm doing**

 **Misoriri: OMIGOSH, you commented! Sorry, I just really love your story, "A Moment of Disbelief".**

 **Fyresilvur: Yes, I will, don't worry.**

 **isis424: Here you go.**

 **Belongs to Rick Riordan and Toby Fox.**

It took a little while to figure out where to go. On the way to the monster camp, they fought a few normal monsters. Not the ones from wherever they were going to fight.

Further along, there was a gate on the road. On it was a sign. 'No unauthorized traffic. No unauthorized humans.'

"That's… ominous," Piper stated.

The demigods murmured their agreement. Then they noticed someone had spray painted underneath it: that means humans who didn't write books

Another sign beneath that, made out of cardboard, read: NO, IT DOESN'T.

There were many more messages below, seemingly an argument, but they decided to stop. Percy drove the Jeep back, and parked it. The demigods progressed on foot, following a small path they found through the woods. As they walked, they sensed shivers creep down their spines, almost as if something was crawling on their backs, but when they felt, there was nothing.

A twig snapped behind them, making them all jump. They turned and pulled out their weapons, only to find a small white dog with a bone in its mouth watching them curiously. It was very clean, so they assumed it belonged to someone living nearby. After staring at them for a few seconds, it loped off into the underbrush.

"It was really cute," Annabeth said. "It seemed friendly, too."

Nico, however, looked disturbed. "That was a human bone…"

"What?" Frank questioned, suddenly looking a bit nauseous. "Are you sure?"

"It sure looked like one," he replied. Seeing the worried look on the others faces, he hurriedly added, "Or it could just be that I wasn't getting a good look at it!"

Horrible scenarios began to go through their minds. They all imagined what a monster eating a human soul looked like.

Their thoughts were interrupted by a voice from nearby. The demigods hid themselves under a ledge underneath the path.

"-ALWAYS STEALING MY ATTACKS, UNDYNE!" a voice, decidedly male, vented. "HONESTLY, THAT THING NEEDS TO GO TO ONE OF THOSE HUMAN ADOPTION PLACES!" The demigods flinched at the word, 'human'.

"I think it's cute," a rough female voice, presumably Undyne, replied. "I saw Sans and Frisk petting it the other day."

"THAT TRAITOR! HE KNOW THAT THING ALWAYS BREAKS INTO THE HOUSE AND STEALS THE SPAGHETTI!" the male voice growled. "AND NICE AS THEY ARE, I'M PRETTY SURE FRISK LET IT IN."

"Wait, it's the one who stole the spaghetti?!" A strange wooshing sound filled the air, and a pressure that almost made their ears pop. "It's gonna wish it was never born! Let's go get it, Papyrus! Ngaaaahh!"

Nico made a confused face. What the Hades kind of a name was Papyrus?

There was the sound of two pairs of boots jogging quickly through the leaves, then gradually fading into the distance.

The demigods look around, then slowly looked around, but still keeping under the ledge. "What was that all about?" Hazel asked.

"I'm more trying to figure out who names their kid Papyrus," Percy wondered aloud. "I mean, Papyrus… Isn't that a kind of paper?"

"Yeah, Egyptian paper," Annabeth agreed. "But we can assume those are probably monsters, the way they said 'human'."

"I guess they were looking for that dog," Jason inputted. "If someone was petting it."

"Poor thing," Piper said. "It's probably really scared."

"Well, it means we're getting close to the camp," Nico said. "Hopefully, it'll be able to find that kid."

"Y'know, if you wanna find Frisk, you're gonna have to try a little harder," a familiar female voice spoke from above them.

Startled, they looked up to see two creatures, which were undeniably monsters, staring at them from the path. The one who had spoken was humanoid, but had a single yellow eye (the other was covered by an eyepatch), strange fins where her ears should've been, green and moist scaly skin, gills on her neck, like a fish, and webbed fingers. The other was what appeared to be a human skeleton, wearing white armor on his torso, a red scarf, red gloves, blue briefs, and red boots.

They jumped up in alarm, in response to the strange monsters who had appeared. They pulled out their weapons. The fish monster held out her hand, and a wicked black spear appeared in it, while the skeleton summoned a long glowing blue bone.

The skeleton looked a little uncomfortable. Maybe he didn't like sharp objects. "MAYBE WE SHOULD JUST GIVE THEM THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT, UNDYNE. CAN'T WE JUST MAKE THEM SOLVE PUZZLES INSTEAD?"

"Papyrus," she started gently. Then she grabbed his scarf and shook him wildly. "This is war! How long does it take to get that into your frickin skull?!"

"PLEASE DON'T SHAKE THE SKELETON!" he exclaimed frantically.

"That being said…" she looked back to the speechless demigods. "We are outnumbered…" She stopped shaking him and cleared her throat. "Hey! Punks! Get out of here, or I'll snap your little arms and shove 'em down your throats! You wanna hurt Frisk?! Ha! I doubt you'll be able to get past me, much less Frisk! If you still wanna fight, then you little cheaters are gonna have to meet me at a time when I'm not outnumbered!" She tugged the skeleton's shoulder. "Let's go, Papyrus!"

He turned, before following her down the trail. "SORRY! SHE'S NOT ONE FOR EXPLAINING! BUT PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE!" he apologized. He raced down the trail after her, much faster than any of them would have been able to keep up.

They stared after spot they had been standing for a few seconds.

"A skeleton…" Frank murmured. "He seemed a lot different from the Spartus my dad gave me."

Nico and Hazel shivered. "Y-yeah…" Hazel said. "He definitely was. If he was just a reanimated human body, we would know."

Nico nodded. "But he… I don't know…" he struggled for words. "Living things give off a different feel from dead things, and that skeleton… well, he sure didn't feel like any skeleton I've ever been around."

Annabeth scrunched her face up in thought before realizing what he meant. "You mean…" she lowered her voice to a whisper, "he was actually alive?"

The others started in realization. Nico gave a tiny nod, looking more and more worried. "That means I don't have any control over him."

"Well, I really feel like we're descending into the belly of the beast, and I literally know what that's feels like, but shouldn't we continue on?" Percy asked.

"I hate myself for agreeing, but yeah," Annabeth replied. "To death (Or lack of, considering that skeleton) we go."

… **(Those of you who finished the neutral/pacifist can skip this)** …

Annabeth was starting to feel really uncomfortable. And she thought it might have something to do with her nightmare last night. She had nightmares all the time, but this one was so bizarre, she wasn't sure if she was just normal dreaming.

In it, she was standing in a very dark area. The only light was strange and wavering, and came from behind her. It almost seemed like it was from a staticky TV screen. She tried to turn, but the dream would not let her.

From what she could see, there was a small child standing in front of her. They had brown hair cut in such a way that it could not be used to identify their gender and olive colored skin. Their eyes were narrowed, but not in such a way that it could come off as unfriendly. In fact, they appeared very, very scared. Sweat was beaded on their brow, as they looked towards the source of the light.

If it wasn't for the worn dagger they clutched in their hands, she might have thought they were just scared of a horror movie on a TV.

A booming high-pitched voice broke the silence from behind her. " _ **Aw, you're feeling left out, aren't you? Well, that's just perfect! After all, I only have six souls! I still need one more…"**_ the voice became more threatening, _**"before I become god. Then, with my newfound power… Monsters… Humans… Everyone… I'LL SHOW THEM ALL THE REAL MEANING OF THIS WORLD!"**_ The light flickered away. A dark mocking laugh. _**"Oh, and forget about escaping to your old SAVE file. IT'S GONE FOREVER. But your old pal FLowey, has worked out a replacement for you! I'll save over your own death, so you can watch me tear you to bloody pieces, over, and over, and over…"**_

The child suddenly looked very angry. They took a step forward, glaring. _**"What? "You really think you can stop me? Hee hee hee…**_ You really are an idiot. _ **"**_

The light suddenly cut off. Suddenly, a small red light in the shape of a cartoon heart bloomed on the child's chest, providing a warm aura in the darkness.

Annabeth could finally turn, and saw six similar hearts, each in a different color, appear in the darkness. Red light filled the entire area, and a dark… shape descended from above.

The light suddenly appeared again, and a terrifying sight met her eyes. This… THING… had two enormous gaping human jaws for mandibles, six metal loops, four of which contained eyes, and countless more metal cables shooting far past where she could see. It really was a TV screen on the things head, and it displayed a disturbing leering face on it. Giant thorned vines stretched seemingly infinitely to the left and right, and two giant plants, which vaguely resembled claws, slammed onto the ground.

It let out an ear-piercing shriek of a laugh, waving its mandibles.

The child's facial expression turned to one of pure Determination. They tightened their grip on their knife, and took a defensive stance. The little heart inside them glowed stronger.

The attacks started so suddenly, Annabeth was sure she'd be hit if she had been in the child's place.

Rings made of bullets of pure white energy formed and converged around them. The child quickly found an opening and raced through it. The rings formed continuously, though, and the child was dashing very quickly.

An orange light appeared from behind them. They raced toward it, which turned out to be an orange box on the ground with the word FIGHT in it. In their hurry to reach it, one of the white bullets smashed into their shoulder. They flinched in pain, but continued on as though it had not hit them. They stamped on the box, and somehow, jumped incredibly high, onto the creature's head. They stabbed their knife into its fleshy part.

 _ **"Oh!"**_ it said, as though mildly amused. It slammed a vine into them, forcing them off.

The child landed lightly on their feet, never pausing, as more bullets, these in the shape of throwing stars (wow, this dream was strange) came from its eyes.

The child was incredible at dodging (Back-flipping, rolling, ducking, twisting, jumping at a rate that no one, not even the most advanced fighters at camp could match) but for every bullet they dodged, twenty took its place. Five ended up smashing into the child, who looked very bruised and tired.

Finally, it was too late. Vines appeared suddenly, and the child was forced to move a certain direction to dodge them. They were running as fast as they could, but…

The child misplaced their footing and, in that split second, a vine went straight through their chest. Their expression changed to one of shock for a moment, blood dribbling out of their mouth. Their eyes went glassy and their head slumped forward. The little heart inside them shook, then shattered into tiny pieces.

In their ears, they heard a deep reassuring voice. "This is all just a bad dream!"… _**"And you're never waking up!"**_ A horrifying laugh filled the world.

 **...(Okay, back to important stuff)…**

Annabeth had woken up with a jerk and gasped. She was in the Jeep, just resting. Percy looked towards her, probably assuming she had had a nightmare about Tartarus. "You okay?"

She nodded weakly. "Just a dream."

She jolted back into the present. They stood in a clearing in which several pieces of sod were torn out of the ground.

"Looks like someone got into a fight," Frank stated.

A howl broke through the clearing. A white dog was poking its head out of a bush. It was not the same as the dog they had seen earlier, but it was similar.

Percy, who liked dogs, went to it to give it a pat. It whined in pleasure.

Before bursting out to reveal that the dog, was in fact, clothed in an enormous suit of human armor. It clutched a white spear in its gloved hand. Strangely, the spear seemed to have the same face as the dog.

It howled again, before turning tail and dashing into the opposite side of the clearing.

"WHY IS EVERYTHING SO STRANGE TODAY?!" Hazel burst out.

"You merely aren't very well acquainted with monsters, ahuhuhu," said a bubbly female voice.

They looked to the direction that the dog had disappeared to.

Six figures emerged from the trees. There were the two monsters they had encountered earlier, two bipedal figure resembling goats, a metal box with a lot of buttons and dials on the front, and…

Annabeth gulped. There was something that was about the height of a ten-year-old with two black pigtails. It had five eyes on its head, and its skin was purplish-gray. It stood on two legs, but had six arms in total. It was a spider clutching two teapots and two teacups.

"Turn back, young ones," the shorter of the two goats ordered. They sounded female. "I know you have intent to harm my child, and I will not let you near them."

The demigods took out their weapons.

The monsters responded in turn. A bone for the skeleton, a spear for the fish monster, a trident for the tall goat, fire blazing in the hands of the shorter one, the robot's hands crackled with electricity, and the spider tightened its grip on its teapots.

"LET'S GET THIS BATTLE STARTED, AND LET'S MAKE IT FABULOUS," the robot shouted.

 **Why did I start reading Percy in Papyrus' voice? He doesn't even have a voice. I need sleep.**

 **Hey! If you guys want to read a fanfiction that is much better than this, check out Spectrum by 1nky on AO3! (Unfortunately, it's not on here.) It's Gasterblaster AU. So much fluffy angst!**

 **Or you could just check out my favorites. They are all much better. But a lot of them are anime ones.**


	4. What a Nightmare

**Genocide Spoilers this chapter!**

 **Battle time! Sorry, can't write battles to save my life. Next chapter will be better.**

 **Okay, can't answer all reviews every time, but this one really caught my attention.**

 **Guest: Please write longer chapters.**

 _Look, dude, I'm sorry. I know how nice it is to see a story updated and have a huge block of text, but I honestly just write until the chapter feels complete. I really don't want to force it, and it just makes the quality of writing go down. I'm not trying to write a novel here, just put a scene in my head into words._

 **Belongs to Toby Fox and Rick Riordan.**

Papyrus didn't like this. He could feel the intent to harm radiating off of the humans, and it was worrying him. He couldn't concentrate as well when an enemy with LOVE was facing him. But he tightened his grip on his blue attack nonetheless.

Undyne looked over to him. "Papyrus… If you don't want to do this-"

He shook his head. "NO, UNDYNE. THIS IS FOR FRISK. I WILL FIGHT WITH EVERYTHING I HAVE TO PROTECT MY FRIENDS! JUST LIKE IN THAT ANIME WE WATCHED!"

Undyne showed off a fanged grin. "Me too, Papyrus."

The teens were silently looking at each other, as though saying, Which one?

They seemed to have made up their minds, and the monsters raced to intercept them. The blond haired human ran for Papyrus, while a dark-haired boy ran for Undyne. He didn't wait to see what would happen, but initiated an encounter.

The human looked surprised to see their soul glowing inside them as well as the world going dimmer around them. Papyrus was surprised, too. It felt like a human SOUL, but it had a goldish tint to it.

He fingered his bone nervously. "PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS, HUMAN. I DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU!"

"Sorry, man, but I can't trust you," the human replied, holding their javelin in front of them. He dashed forward. Papyrus managed to mostly get out of the way, but was nicked on his shoulder, lowering his HP by a few points.

He started his attack the way he usually did. Several bones sprouted from the ground. The human actually flew over them. Literally.

"WOWIE!" Papyrus had little sparkles in his eyes. "EVEN FRISK CAN'T DODGE LIKE THAT!"

In his distraction, he was hit again. He stumbled back, blinking the pain away.

"HOWEVER! I CAN COUNTER THAT!" He sent several BLUE attacks through him. The human obviously did not know that BLUE meant STOP and was hit, his HP going down. Papyrus carefully kept an eye on it, not intending to let it go to less than 1, if it got that far.

The human floated in the air watching him from above, as Papyrus made some shorter bones sprout out of the ground, planning the moment.

The blue affect took hold, and the human fell heavily to the ground in surprise. He smashed directly into the bones.

"BLUE MEANS PATIENCE! BUT DARK BLUE MEANS INTEGRITY… AND GRAVITY! NYEH, HEH, HEH! EVEN BABY BONES KNOW THAT!" Papyrus was actually worried about hurting him. But blue mode raised another problem. Generating white magic was easy. Adding another color like aqua was tricky for a minor monster, but quite effortless for him. But manipulating a SOUL itself, especially a human one… He was now working so hard on concentrating, he could barely move, and any further attacks from the human would land directly on him.

But he stood his ground, planting his feet firmly. He barely let the pain show when the spear smashed into his armor, lowering his HP even further.

"Papyrus! Be ruthless!" Undyne shouted at him from across the clearing, focusing on maintaining GREEN on the dark-haired boy with the sword, whom she was fighting.

Papyrus shook himself out of his pain. Undyne was right. He'd have to try harder. He focused on the arena that he had created for the purpose of the fight. He took a deep breath and sent a wave of bones that gradually increased in height towards his opponent. After this, he sent aqua bones with white bones directly afterward. Both he and Sans were very fond of this particular attack.

The kid was still strong. He still managed to clear most of the bones. But he underestimated the speed of the blue and white bones, and hit them.

The kid's HP was at half of what it could be. Papyrus would have to plan these next moves carefully. He was hit again with the javelin and flinched. His HP was less than half. He would have to try harder.

He made tiny bones that moved quickly, and tall bones that followed in between, along with several blue interspersed throughout. The human did get injured by some of them, but he managed to strain against the gravity just enough to get through most of them.

The javelin smashed into him again. He staggered a bit, this time.

"Papyrus!" Undyne screeched. "Use your special attack!"

"I CAN'T!" He cried back. "THE DOG STOLE IT!"

"Think of something!"

He did think of something. He really didn't want to, and wasn't sure he even could, but… He took a deep breath, despite not needing it.

He held his hands over his head, concentrating in a spot in the air, forcing his magic to gather there. It was very hard, especially while trying to maintain BLUE.

He concentrated, but it was getting painful. He tried to remember what Sans had taught him (Breath, be calm, you're in control), but he couldn't. The magic spiraled loose in a big useless swirl. He couldn't do it. He didn't know why he had thought it would work. He collapsed to his knees, his turn up. The kid's soul returned to its normal gold-tinted color.

The kid did actually seem like he was reluctant to hurt him. Perhaps Papyrus really had made a good impression on him…?

A dark-haired boy who was different from the one fighting Undyne appeared. He held a black dagger high above his head. Papyrus' eyes widened as he tried to scramble back. The blond-haired boy held out his hand to stop him, but already the dagger was coming down.

He heard the dagger sink in. He was bracing himself for the feeling of turning to ashes. Nothing. In fact, he still hurt from the other wounds, but felt pretty good otherwise.

He cracked open his eyes. Someone was standing in front of him. It took him a second to realize who it was, but he'd recognize that green skin and red hair anywhere.

Undyne had abandoned her own battle and rushed in front of him. She had taken the dagger for him. He frantically scanned her soul. Her HP was at 0. She collapsed to the ground, already starting to dissolve.

* * *

Percy was surprised when the monster he had been fighting had suddenly left. She had seemed very devoted to fighting him. The longer he fought her, and the longer he heard her rant about how she was fighting for her friends and the person who had brought them all hope… He didn't feel like fighting her, and actually was starting to get uncomfortable.

He looked around and spotted her across the clearing. She was kneeling on the ground, the skeleton he had seen earlier staring at her in shock.

Nico stood above her, his dagger clutched in his hands. He looked a little disturbed himself. Percy put two and two together. She had stopped fighting him just to save her friend. Suddenly, he felt rather sick. He had fought some pretty bad monsters before, but he had never fought one who had passed a chance to beat a demigod to sacrifice themselves. He rushed over.

"UNDYNE!" the skeleton yelled. "UNDYNE!"

She looked at her hands, which were starting to turn to ash. "Haha," she laughed weakly. "You… have more LOVE than I was expecting. Ouch." She gripped the front of her tank top. "B-but… If you get past me, who's to say you'll stop there? When I'm dead, are y-you just going to kill him anyway? If you hate monsters this much… w-would you do that to a human?" She looked up.

Percy gasped. Her right eye had turned pure black with a yellow slit in it. She laughed.

The world was filled with a blinding light. The other monsters and demigods stopped and stared at her. Nico tightened his grip on the dagger.

The monster had transformed. Her ponytail spiked out; her eyepatch had ripped off and magic flowed from the empty socket in the shape of spears; she was wearing black spiky armor with hearts on it, and her boots were spiked. The amount of power being output was so incredible, the skeleton behind her had been knocked unconscious.

She raised her lips in a terrifying snarl. " _I know you have friends. But the worst human leaders had friends too, and everyone wanted them dead. Time to die._ "

She swiped her spear through him. He gasped in surprise as he was rooted to the ground. A shield appeared on his hand.

"Nico!" Percy yelled.

She glanced over in disgust. " _Stay out of this, hybrid._ " There was some sort of barrier keeping him from getting near him.

She sent her blue spears flying towards him. Nico turned, and the shield turned with him, but he didn't realize what Percy knew from fighting her. A spear smashed into him from behind.

"You have to use the shield!" Percy yelled. "Nothing else can block them!"

He slashed at her. She stood still, not even letting off any sign she had felt the blow.

" _If you were going to kill Papyrus, who was no threat to you, than I don't want to know what the hell you are, or who you're trying to get Frisk for,_ " she growled. More spears, these at a faster rate flew towards him.

Percy glanced around frantically. The other monsters were staring wide-eyed, and the demigods were paralyzed in horror.

"Asgore!" the female goat yelled. "What do we do?!"

"I don't know!" the male goat yelled. "I've never seen her like this before!"

"At this rate, she'll really kill him!"

It seemed to be true. He was looking very battered, and his breathing was ragged.

The spider laughed at Annabeth. "Ahuhuhu, we have a much bigger problem to deal with, so I'll spare you for now." She stopped attacking and Annabeth fell to the ground from the purple webs she had been stuck to.

The other monsters dropped their attacks as well.

"Undyne!" the male goat yelled. "You'll kill him!"

 _"You were the one who taught me how to fight humans to protect monsters,"_ she replied, not taking her eyes of Nico. _"But this scum isn't even a full human. And I'm going to fight him to protect humans and monsters."_

The goat tried to approach her without luck. He couldn't get close to her with the power she was emitting.

The female goat gasped. "Papyrus! Please wake up!" she yelled at the skeleton behind her. He did not move. "Undyne needs you!"

He groaned weakly. "U-UNDYNE…" He looked up. "UNDYNE!?" He jumped to his feet, but could not get close to her. "WHAT'S GOING ON!?"

She glanced behind her shoulder. _"I'm just going to take out the thing that tried to kill you."_

"UNDYNE! STOP! YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HIM!" he screamed.

 _"I just said that was the plan,"_ she snarled.

"YOU HAVE TO STOP! I'VE NEVER SEEN YOU LIKE THIS!"

 _"No."_

He wasn't quite strong enough to get close. He summoned a blue bone and stabbed himself with it. Inside of him, a white soul turned dark blue.

 _"What are you doing?"_ Undyne asked.

He lifted his feet as though he was carrying a heavy weight on his shoulders, but he managed to approach her very slowly.

 _"Papyrus! Get the hell out of here!"_ she yelled.

"YOU AREN'T UNDYNE!" he shouted. "THE UNDYNE I KNOW IS SCARY, BUT NICE!"

 _"Papyrus! I'm warning you!"_ She held out her black spear. _"I will hurt you!"_

"THE UNDYNE I KNOW WOULD HURT ME! BUT SHE WOULD NEVER THREATEN ME!" he growled. "SHE'D TEACH ME HOW TO SPAR, AND BLOCK ATTACKS, AND DODGE! AND THEN WE'D MAKE SPAGHETTI TOGETHER!"

Undyne snarled and turned to face him fully. _"Who the hell do you think you are, talking to me like that?"_ She hefted her spear in front of her.

He summoned another bone. "I'M YOUR FRIEND!" He charged forward.

She held up her spear in surprise. She was even more surprised when the skeleton wrapped his arms around her. Tears flowed from his empty sockets. "AND NOT J-JUST ME! F-FRISK, AND ASGORE, AND… A-ALPHYS; WE'RE ALL YOUR FRIENDS! SO PLEASE STOP IT!"

She gasped. Her eye socket stopped giving off magic, and her remaining eye turned back to normal. She paused, then wrapped her arms around him. "D-don't cry, you wimp. You'll make me cry too." She turned. "But we still have a problem to deal with." She looked around at the demigods. "Tell me when to stop, Paps."

The skeleton's eyes went wide. "OH! I GET IT!"

She raised her hand. A hundred white magical spears formed. And then, they smashed into the demigods. Percy knew no more.

* * *

"STOP UNDYNE!" Papyrus shouted. "THEIR HP IS AT ONE, NOW!"

She waved her arm and the spears disappeared. She stood, admiring her work, then promptly collapsed. Her black, spiky armor disappeared, but the wound on her chest had disappeared.

"Using your expertise of seeing souls, and combining that with her power to lower their HP to one and make them unconscious…"Toriel marveled. "Why?"

Papyrus stood a bit shakily. His HP was very low as well. He picked up Undyne, stumbling a bit. "WELL, IF WE WERE TO JUST SEND THEM BACK, THEY WOULD TELL THE PEOPLE WHO THE SPIDER SAW TO JUST SEND MORE PEOPLE, AND THEN THERE WOULD BE EVEN MORE HURT PEOPLE! SO IF WE CAN SHOW THEM THAT MONSTERS ARE FRIENDLY, MAYBE THEY'LL TELL THEM THAT THEY DON'T HAVE TO HURT US!"

Toriel was beginning to see why Sans thought it was a problem that Papyrus refused to believe that people were bad.

 **"Show them our fabulousness?"** Mettaton, in his EX form, asked. **"I like the sound of that!"**

"You mean befriend them?" Asgore asked.

"I'm not sure I want to be friends with them…" Muffet said doubtfully.

"PLEASE, EVERYONE! FRISK SHOWED US KINDNESS, AND LOOK WHERE IT GOT US!" He gestured as well as he could with the unconscious Undyne in his arms. "SO LET'S SHOW THEM WE CAN BE FRIENDLY, AND WE COULD STOP ANOTHER WAR!"

Toriel looked to the unconscious teens. "I suppose." She had her doubts. "Muffet, could you bind their hands?"

Muffet produced long purple strings, Spiderman style. "Can I go back to my shop now?"

"Muffet, you are a boss as well," Asgore told her. "To the monsters, you are a very prominent figure. You should stay to show that you have made friends with the humans as well."

She seemed a bit annoyed, but said nothing.

The other monsters, besides Papyrus, picked up the humans and started carrying them back to the camp.

"Where will we put them, Papyrus?" Toriel asked.

"WE WILL PUT THEM IN THE SHED!" he replied. "THAT'S WHERE I KEPT FRISK WHEN I CAPTURED THEM!"

Toriel stared. "But they escaped from the shed, did they not?"

"YEP! AND THEN THEY BECAME MY FRIEND!" Papyrus agreed.

"How about we keep them locked up in one of the rooms of the houses, instead?" she said.

"I LIKE MY IDEA BETTER, BUT OKAY!"

 **The power might go out because of snow (dangit) so might be a while for the next update.**

 **I imagine Undying as being much more vicious than Undyne. I mean, I haven't even beat her yet, but she's silent throughout the entire battle, unlike normal Undyne. She's also smiling creepily; she sometimes changes expression in normal. Oh, and she doesn't shake at all when I kick her with the ballet shoes.**

 **Review, or I send Jerry to your house. *Laughs evilly* For a sleepover…**


	5. And Frightened Miss Muffet Away

**Okay, after the crappiness of the last chapter, this one shall hopefully be better! Also, don't worry. I will make the demigods fight the monsters for fun, and there will be one more major fight scene.**

 **One review that really caught my attention:**

Zarbapha: _Your comment was one hundred percent right. I was kicking myself for putting myself in a position where six battles were going on at once, and I just had to focus on those ones. I will try to elaborate on what the others faced later on, but I'm still mad at myself for doing that._

 **Before I forget… THIS STORY WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR GENOCIDE! IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THE STORY OF GENOCIDE, GO AWAY AND WATCH/PLAY IT!**

 **Belongs to Rick and Mor- I mean, Toby!**

* * *

Piper stood in a dark room. In front of her stood a tiny child. She could not see them very well at all, only knew that they were very small. They held a knife loosely in their hands. Fireballs flew around them, but the child made no move to dodge, and the fireballs did not hit them.

 **"N-no,"** said a tearful voice from behind them. **"It's not just that. I'm doing this because I really care about you, Chara."**

The child dropped their knife.

 **"I care about you more than anyone else!"** the voice continued, practically choking on their sobs.

More fireballs flew past them, but the child stood stock still, unalarmed.

 **"I'm not ready for this to end,"** the voice cried out. " **I'm not ready for you to leave. I'm not ready to say goodbye to someone like you again."**

The child held out their arms, as though they wanted to hug whoever was talking. It was hard to tell in the dark, but it seemed as though they were crying.

 **"S-o, p-lease STOP d-doing this, and JUST LET ME WIN!"** A wave of rainbow colored light lit up the darkness.

"I love you, Asriel," the child whispered, even as the light poured over them. "And I'm not going to let you do this to yourself!"

…

Piper awoke. She was lying in a dark room on a mat, a pillow under her head. First thing she noticed: her hands were bound. Second thing: all of her friends were lying on mats or beds around her.

She could see a door, probably locked. From behind it came muffled sounds of yelling and running, so there was probably a hallway.

She groaned, propping herself up. Her knife was gone, as she supposed made sense, but maybe Percy and Jason still had their weapons.

When she looked around, she saw that Annabeth was already sitting against the back of a bed. She was trying to gnaw the purple ropes that bound her hands, but they were very strong.

"Ugh, this tastes awful," Annabeth shuddered, noticing Piper was awake. "Are you okay?"

"A little sore, but I'm fine," she nodded. "That robot… He was very strange. I could literally shoot power right out of myself."

Annabeth pondered this. "Yeah, and that spider… she made me stick onto her web. And don't even get me started on the giant spider muffin."

"… Giant spider muffin?"

Annabeth nodded. "Eaten by pastries… not how I expected to almost die. Anyway, what the heck was with that fish monster?"

"I don't know, but she was really scary, even to the other monsters, it looked like."

"Why would-" Annabeth began, but was cut off by the door opening.

A short white monster wearing a T-shirt that literally said "Camp T-shirt" in sloppy, red marker, and short pants, as well as untied sneakers stood at the door. It held a pillow in one hand and a bottle of ketchup in the other. Piper realized it was a skeleton, but it didn't look anatomically correct. It had literal cheeks, not just cheek bones, and it had no jaws, just a grinning set of teeth. It was somehow rather chubby, as well. Unlike the other skeleton, it had pinpricks of light burning in its eye sockets.

It looked surprised to see them. "ope, i'm an idiot," the skeleton, which seemed to be a boy, said. "forgot you guys were in here."

Piper hurriedly stood up and took a defensive position, along with Annabeth. He held up his hands in a relaxed sort of manner. "geez, don't get your hair all tangled up. i'm just trying to find a place to take a nap. i'm no good at fighting anyway."

"Why didn't you just kill us?" Annabeth asked him.

"killing someone is pretty serious," the skeleton replied. "how evil do you think we are? don't be such a… _kill_ joy." Piper swore she heard a beat. Nobody laughed. "yeesh, tough audience. while you're up, i might as well ask tori if you can get out of those things. no point in staying up and being bored."

He closed the door again, and they heard the lock click. He returned a minute later. "come with me."

Piper and Annabeth exchanged a glance. "Why should we trust you?"

"if you want to wait in there and be bored out of your skulls," he tapped his own skull, "i couldn't give a crap. but tori probably wants to talk to you, and she's my friend, so i'll put in a little effort into getting you to come."

Getting separated sounded like a really bad idea, but they nodded. He lazily led them down the hall, obviously not knowing anything about hostage situations. If they hadn't been in a house full of monsters, they could have easily killed him, even with their hands tied.

It turned out that they were in a two-story house sort of like the Big House back at camp. The skeleton tromped down the stairs and turned to the left. "hey, tori, brought those weird kids."

"Oh, thank you, Sans," replied a motherly voice. "I am in the kitchen."

He led them to the kitchen, and they saw the female goat monster stirring some sort of pastry batter, along with the spider monsters.

"have you seen paps anywhere?" the skeleton, whose name was apparently Sans, asked.

"Ahuhuhu," the spider giggled. "I think he was looking for that dog; the one that you feed the spaghetti to when you think no one is looking."

"hey, just trying to protect humanity." He shrugged. "seeya." He turned and left through the screen door.

The goat monster eyed them. "Children, are your wrists alright? It seems as though those ropes may rub your skin."

… Children… For gods' sake, Piper was sixteen! But if it meant she could get out of these ropes…

"Yes, please, and could we please see our weapons?" she inquired sweetly, laying on the charmspeak.

The goat and the spider looked dazed for a second, then the spider hissed. "You're being too sweet, dearie. I'm made of magic; I know when someone is using it on me." Piper inwardly cringed at how the spider's way of speaking reminded her of Drew. "Toriel might be more trusting than me, but I'm not going to fall under a spell like that."

The goat, Toriel, apparently, shook her head. "Young ones, it is not very nice to try to take advantage of people that way. I will not give you your weapons, but Muffet will remove your binds."

Muffet sighed. "I suppose… Just remember, your friends are upstairs, and you can't take off those strings without a spider." She briefly touched each rope and they dissolved.

"Muffet, it is not necessary to speak with so much… _venom!_ Badump!" the goat joked, laughing at her own horrible play on words.

Muffet and the demigods were unamused.

Annabeth rubbed her sore wrists. Muffet sneered, then turned back to her pastries. "What temperature do the butterscotch tarts need, Toriel?"

"Oh, I will finish those, Muffet," Toriel replied. She whispered something in her… Well, not ear, but spider equivalent of an ear. The spider bared her fangs.

"No," she objected to whatever Toriel had asked of her.

"Muffet, please be reasonable," Toriel said. "Normally, you are very friendly."

"Normally, I act friendly because I can't make money by being unfriendly," she hissed again. "I don't mind monsters or Frisk, but I'm not going to be friendly to humans or hybrids without them paying me!" She stamped her foot down.

Toriel sighed. She whispered something again. Muffet's expression softened slightly.

"Fine," she growled. "But I'm leaving after that." She turned to Annabeth. Her expression morphed into something sickly sweet. "Would you like something to drink, dearie? Come with me."

And she wrapped Annabeth up in purple webs in an instant and dragged her towards a little side door. Annabeth's eyes widened and she made a "Help me!" sort of gesture.

A firm furry paw gripped Piper's shoulder. "Muffet won't harm her. You can help me here, child."

Piper had no choice but to nod.

* * *

The room that the spider dragged Annabeth into was sort of like a quaint little dining room. 'A tea room,' Annabeth thought, in spite of her terror.

The spider set her in a chair. "Comfy?" She turned without waiting for an answer. The spider bustled around a small table, pouring various teas and juices into little china teacups. With her six arms, she prepared a little tray very quickly, and brought it over to the table.

She pointed to each cup. "I have golden flower tea, sea tea, spiders, and spider cider. Which one would you like?"

Annabeth cringed at the spiders swarming around in the cup. "Do you seriously want me to drink that?"

"No, I just use it as a conversation starter," she sighed. "But I don't feel like having a conversation with you. Personally, I recommend the cider. Flower tea is bitter, sea tea makes you hyper, but the cider is made with whole spiders, not just the juice. Magic spiders."

That information was sort of unnecessary in Annabeth's opinion, but she took the cup of cider. Muffet drank nothing, and instead, started weaving little purple strings around her fingers on one of her six hands. A spider lowered itself from the ceiling and perched comfortably on her head. She glanced up with one of her five eyes briefly, but continued weaving on her fingers.

"What are you doing?" Annabeth asked, her curiosity outweighing her fear.

Muffet stopped and looked at her. "Finger crocheting." She continued.

Annabeth hated to ask the next question. "Do you know how to weave?"

Muffet didn't even look up. "I know how to weave a web. I'm not artistically skilled. I hate doing this, actually."

"Then why are you doing it?" Annabeth dared to take a tiny sip of cider. It was actually really good. It was sweet and well-seasoned, and almost seemed to make warmth sink into her bones.

"Because everyone expects spiders to be able to do it," she replied. She dropped a stitch. "Oh, dammit!" She swore. She burst into inky black tears. The spider on top of her head scuttled around in anxiety.

That caught Annabeth off-guard. "Wh-what's wrong?"

"Everything!" she blubbered, frantically trying to wipe away the liquid running copiously from her five eyes. "The underground was open, the spiders got to leave the ruins, and everyone was getting their families back! I thought… I thought I would get to see my family again!"

"Aren't the spiders your family?" Annabeth asked logically.

"W-well, yes and no," she replied, her voice a little less hysterical, though her tears were still running down her cheeks. "I am a spider, so I'm distantly related to all of them." The spider crawled down her neck into her hand. She patted it gently. "But, you've never seen a spider that looks like me, have you?"

Annabeth shook her head. Arachne, too, was a spider-human hybrid, but she looked like some sort of creature from a Stephen King novel, whereas Muffet just looked like a little girl with purple skin and a few extra appendages.

"It's sort of like how there are monster, and there are boss species," Muffet continued, still hiccupping a bit. "There are spiders, and there are spider chiefs. I'm a spider chief."

"So, is there only one chief?" Annabeth asked. "I'm not entirely sure if there's only one boss species."

Muffet shook her head. "Not necessarily. The monster in the kitchen, Toriel, she's a boss species, and the other goat monster, Asgore, is a boss species. There was another one, but he died a while ago. But you're right; I am the only spider chief." She looked down at the strings on her fingers. "Oh, this is stupid! I'll never be any good at this!" She threw it to the ground and pulled her legs up onto her chair. She buried her face in knees and made no further movements. The spider rushed back and forth over her hands, but she ignored it. Finally, it raced over to Annabeth, and, after a moment's hesitation, dissolved the strings on her body.

Annabeth realized that it wanted her to comfort Muffet, but, crying or not, she was still a spider. She shuddered. Her mother was going to hate her for this.

She walked over, and laid a hand on one of her shoulders. "I see." She glanced at the strings on the floor. "They could all weave, right? But you couldn't?"

Muffet raised her head weakly. "Y-yes. My skills are more in baking."

"How long have you been alone for?" Annabeth asked.

"Since the end of the monster war," she replied. "There were a few other spider chiefs. I was the youngest and the weakest. Just before the monsters were sealed underground, the humans raided the camp we were in. My mother, she always thought I was useless, gave me to one of the monsters, and stayed behind to fight, along with my siblings. That was just before the barrier was created. I almost died. It was very cold underground. Thankfully, one of the monsters got me to a lava chamber where I could warm up."

Annabeth thought that seemed a tad excessive, but decided not to comment on that. "Did you ever hear what happened?"

"No," she said hollowly. "I thought maybe they stayed in one of the parts of the Underground closer to the surface. Maybe they just couldn't cross over to the deeper parts because of the cold. I needed money if I wanted to get over there, so I got the help of the other spiders, and made the only thing I could… Pastries." She looked at her hands. "And after hundreds of years of that, Frisk destroys the barrier, and the spiders trapped in the ruins can leave." She took a deep breath. "I learned that all the chiefs had died against the humans."

She laughed bitterly. "I suppose I already knew that and could have learned just by asking Asgore, but... Well, when you're trapped Underground and probably never going to see the sun again… HOPES and DREAMS are the only things keeping you from falling. And to think, I left there, never being able to say thank you. I thought she was sending me off because she doubted me. Ahuha," she laughed weakly. "I know now that I could have never faced off against a human, and she loved me."

Annabeth gave the trembling monster a reassuring squeeze. "I found out, a while back, that sometimes it seems like your parents hate you, but they could never really stop loving you. Have you really kept this to yourself for so long?"

Muffet nodded. "Huhu, I feel better, actually." She rubbed her stomach. "Kind of hungry." She grabbed a donut from off the tray and bit into it.

Annabeth picked up the string. "I never expected to have to say this to a spider… but I'm pretty good at weaving. Would you like me to show you how to do it?"

The spider wiped the tear trails from her cheeks. "Yes, please."

'I thought that my SOUL was the only thing they wanted,' Annabeth thought watching Muffet finish off her donut. 'I never thought that they have problems of their own.' She knew that the gods would be angry at her for thinking this. 'Are all the monsters like this?'

* * *

 **Our poor little spider needs some love, too. I really do like Muffet a lot! She's one of my fav bosses!**

 **Hope you guys who didn't review enjoyed having Jerry over. I got to have Papyrus over, and I showered him in kisses, but in a platonic way, because he is a skeleton, and I'm pretty sure the skelebros are aromantic asexual anyway.**


	6. diS bE yUr BeSt fRend!

**So, after the backstory of little miss Muffet, there will be some happy bits! ... maybe.**

 **If you think this belongs to me, you are really dumb.**

Papyrus was hugging Alphys. She was trembling pretty badly.

"IT'S ALRIGHT, ALPHYS," he comforted. "UNDYNE WILL BE ALRIGHT! SHE'S TOUGH AND THE DETERMINATION HELPED HEAL HER!"

Alphys didn't want to say what she knew about DETERMINATION. After all, Papyrus was very close to Undyne too. "Y-yeah," she agreed. "She'll probably be fine. She just really needs to sleep for a while. Uh, why don't you go find that dog? I'm sure Undyne would be happy to see that you caught it."

Papyrus grinned widely, even for a skeleton. "YES! A WAKING UP PRESENT FOR HER!" He raced out the door, chuckling.

Alphys sighed.

"thanks for not telling my bro," said a voice from behind her. "i don't know as much about determination as you, but from what i do know… i don't think papyrus would take it too well."

Sans was sitting on one of the rafters in the small cabin she was in. How he got up there, she was not sure, but it was not the first time she'd seen him do that.

"Yeah, a sudden lack of DT…" Alphys started. She started to tremble again.

Sans jumped down and landed lightly on his feet. He hugged her. He was more comfortable than Papyrus because of his unexplainable chubbiness, but he didn't give off a comforting feeling like Papyrus did.

"can make a soul fall down," he finished darkly. "almost happened to me, once." He stretched his arms out lazily. "but Undyne has a lot of dt normally. she'll be fine. she probably just pushed herself too hard."

Alphys took a deep breath. "You're right. I need to stay DETERMINED for both of us."

A loud yelling made them look out the screen door. Papyrus was chasing the mysterious white dog across the campgrounds, almost stumbling into the campfire circle. "COME BACK HERE, YOU CANINE FIEND! I WILL END YOUR REIGN OF TERROR!" The dog merely wagged its tail harder and continued running.

"heheh, better go help him," he chuckled. He raised a hand as he left. "seeya."

Alphys thought back on Sans' words. Undyne was the number one problem on her mind, but something else was tickling the back of her skull. When had Sans almost fallen?

…

Piper heard the sound of a door opening. She turned and saw Annabeth leading the spider out. The spider was looking to the ground, weary, but peaceful.

"Ah, Muffet," Toriel said. She seared the pastries she had forced Piper to help her make with flame magic. "Is everything alright? You look very tired."

Muffet exhaled. "I am very tired, but I'm doing fine."

"Doing _well_ ," the goat monster corrected. "You may leave if you want."

"No, I'll stay a little longer," she replied. "I just want to take a nap before dinner." She turned and went up the stairs, pausing a moment. "Oh, and please apologize to that spider, dearie, the one you almost stabbed. They can't hold grudges any more than a Froggit, but they appreciate the gesture."

Toriel stared after her. "I've never seen Muffet like that. Did something happen?"

Annabeth shrugged. "I think she'd rather not have me tell you."

The screen-door opened again, and a strange creature walked in. She looked like a small dog, but she wore a T-shirt, had spiky black hair with a bow, and cat ears coming out of her head. She literally had two pairs of ears. She was actually very cute. "Hoi!" she declared. "Tem bRinG dis friend!" She held the door open and the little white dog they had seen when they first entered the camp leaped in.

Toriel gaped at it. "That is the dog that stole my phone!"

The cat thing rubbed against it. It whined in happiness and returned the gesture. "Tem tink iT's a gUd friEnd."

The door was kicked open by a red boot. It was the tall skeleton they had seen earlier. "THERE YOU ARE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL CAPTURE YOU AND SHOW YOU TO UNDYNE WHEN SHE WAKES UP!" the skeleton declared.

The dog's expression morphed to one of alarm. Piper could have sworn it was thinking, 'Oh, shoot, time to go.'

It jumped up onto the counter, grabbed the biggest tart in its mouth, and pushed over the skeleton, racing out the door.

"BoI!" the cat thing waved after it.

"Pest!" Toriel growled. "It stole my snail pie, too!"

"UGH!" the skeleton groaned. "EVIL PREVAILS ANOTHER DAY! BUT I WILL CAPTURE IT! I WILL BE THE ONE! I MUST BE THE ONE! I WILL CAPTURE THAT DOG!" He finally noticed the two girls in the kitchen. "OH, YOU'RE FINALLY UP! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL MAKE FRIENDS WITH YOU, USING MY INCREDIBLE FRIENDSHIP POWER!"

"I already made friends with a spider today, I think I'll wait until tomorrow," Annabeth shrugged.

He grabbed her shoulders and stooped down. "DO YOU MEAN MUFFET!? NO! HOW COULD HER FRIENDSHIP POWER BE GREATER THAN MINE?! SPIDERS ARE CREEPY, AND NOT CUDDLY! NOT LIKE SKELETONS!" He sprinted out the door. "I MUST TRY HARDER!"

Annabeth and Piper stared after him. Toriel made an annoyed noise. "That dog... You may explore, children. Just do not leave the house."

Piper and Annabeth found a living room and sat down on the sofa. Annabeth told Piper what she had learned about the spider.

"Wow..." Piper marveled. "That sounds really hard to live with."

The little cat creature entered the room. After a quick "Hoi!" she jumped on the couch and settled next to them comfortably.

"So, did you learn anything about that goat lady? Toriel, I think?" Annabeth asked.

"Just that she wants me to call her Aunt Toriel," Piper sighed. "Apparently she already has a child."

"The spider said she was a super powerful monster," Annabeth stated, "but I didn't learn anything else."

"Hehe," a voice giggled from behind them. The girls whirled around, but saw nothing. They looked to the small cat, but she looked just as confused as them, turning her head frantically trying to find the source of the noise.

They shivered. "Let's go see if the others are up," Annabeth declared.

Piper nodded. "Yeah, let's." They hurried up the stairs, Piper stealing one last glance behind her.

The cat thing had stopped looking around, and had focused her attention on something else. She was definitely was not the brightest bulb. After all, what was the point in hissing at a potted yellow flower?

 **Sorry for short chapter.**


	7. Swearing, Cruelty, and Demons (Oh my!)

**48 freaking reviews for just six chapters?! I don't deserve you awesome guys! *Throws sprinkles in the air***

 **Go check out this awesome fanfic called Flowey Is Not a Good Life Coach by unrestedjade on AO3. It's super cool! They even linked some fanart I sent them! (It's the crappiest one :P)**

"Hey, Seaweed brain!" Percy heard, vaguely. He was very tired. "Wake up!" someone shoved him.

He sat up clearing his eyes. Annabeth had been shaking him. "Where are we?" he asked.

"Monster camp," she replied simply.

Percy sat up so fast, he almost got whiplash. He reached for his pocket, only to find his hands were bound.

He looked her over carefully. "Are you okay?"

"Yep." She held up her hands. "My wrists are a little sore, but I'm fine."

"Can you cut mine off?" Percy asked.

Annabeth shook her head. "I don't think that will work. They're magic."

He looked at her wrists. "Then how did you get yours off?"

"Magic."

He stared at her.

"Yes, I know, I can't use magic," Annabeth rolled her eyes. "One of the monsters got them off for me."

"Did they hurt you?" he asked, worried.

"No," Annabeth shook her head. "In fact, they were actually pretty nice. Well, except for this other skeleton we met. He was a jerk."

Percy was about to ask when she had seen another skeleton, when a loud, profanity-riddled, squeaky voice came from the crack under the door.

"You are such an asshole!" it screamed. "I thought you like being friends with Frisk so much, yet you constantly do this to me!"

"keep your petals on," a deeper, relaxed voice replied. "you're right, i do love _stem_. however i do not like you at all. i might not remember everything, but i know enough that just looking at you pisses me off."

Piper looked up. She threw open the door and ran out, Percy and Annabeth following close behind.

After running down the hall towards the voice they found it was coming from a laundry room. And inside was a skeleton, holding a flowerpot with a yellow flower.

Percy did a double take. The flower had eyes and a mouth, and was currently waving its leaves around in frustration.

The skeleton turned, looking mildly disappointed. "aw, you caught me."

"Oh, this is great!" the flower ranted. "It's those stupid hybrids. Hey, get me away from trashbag here!"

"What are you doing?" Percy asked the skeleton.

He shrugged. "trying to throw this guy in the dryer. it's probably like an amusement park ride to him. a really hot, painful, hour-long amusement ride." His grin seemed to grow wider, in a sadistic sort of way. He paused for a second. "oh, yeah, by the way, i'm the jerk your girlfriend told you about. if you want a skeleton who isn't a jerk, go talk to my brother." Man, this guy had good hearing!

"Wait..." Annabeth thought a second. "The tall skeleton?"

He nodded. "the tall skeleton."

"As interesting as this breakthrough is, I'm still in danger of being put in a washing machine!" the flower screamed. "Get me away from him!"

The skeleton placed it in Piper's hands without them even doing anything. "for you, my love," he joked. "it's not fun when you get caught, anyway." He pushed past them out into the hall.

"Yeah, just run, you coward," the flower called. "You used to run like a little wimp a long time ago. I miss those days."

Piper shuddered and quickly put the flowerpot down, wiping her hands as though hoping to get the feel of profanic flower off.

"Trashbag," he muttered. He noticed them staring at him. "Well, what do you want?!"

"Who are you," Annabeth asked, "and how can you talk?"

"Easy! I'm Flowey, Flowey the flower!" he chirped with fake cheeriness. "And I don't feel like answering that stupid question, because of one thing I learned a long time ago: it's fun to keep secrets." He giggled.

"Are you a monster?" Piper asked.

"Ha, I wish," Flowey replied sassily. "Nope, just a flower. I'd even take being a hybrid like you over being a flower."

"Ahem," someone cleared their throat behind them. Nico stood just outside the hall.

"Oh, howdy!" Flowey exclaimed. "You're the one who almost killed fishy, right? Boy, you're lucky Papyrus got to her before she got to you! She's really tough! Of course, you're the reason she's about to fall! Sure hope Frisk gets here in time! Papyrus gets really boring when he's sad."

"How did you get in here?" a new voice asked. Something that looked like either a little dinosaur or a giant lizard wearing a denim dress hurried in.

"Let's just say a certain smiley someone doesn't like me very much," the flower replied. "Oh, by the way Alphys, that's the human who hurt Undyne. Thought you might be interested."

The lizard's eyes widened and she looked at Nico, her claws twitching slightly. She then took a deep breath. She grabbed Flowey and left without another word.

Nico watched her leave down the hall, Flowey taunting her all the way. "What the heck is that thing? I've been turned into plants before and I don't appreciate smiling flowers teasing me."

"Wow, you were right about that skeleton being a jerk," Percy marveled. "I mean, the flower's a jerk too, but sticking him in a laundry machine just because he doesn't like him sounds kinda harsh."

"Skeleton?" Nico asked.

"Yeah, this one was short, but he was really mean," Percy answered.

"Well, to be fair, he was nice to the other monsters," Annabeth reasoned. "I guess he doesn't like humans."

"Ahuhuhu," came a voice Percy recognized from behind them. "He likes humans, but he does hate people who hurt his brother."

Percy jumped out of his socks. It was the giant spider Annabeth had fought. "Here you go, dearie." She tapped the cords around his wrists and they dissolved. She regarded Nico for a second, then did the same. "I already met the rest of your friends. It's a good thing they didn't have any weapons. Otherwise, I'd be a pile of dust." She jumped onto the ceiling, and hung upside down. "I just saw Frisk come back, they should be in soon. I'll tell them to talk to you."

She meandered along the ceiling and leaped to the first floor when she reached the stairs.

"Frisk…" Nico repeated quietly. "That's the kid. We have to get them to Olympus first chance we get, before the monsters get any ideas."

Annabeth and Piper exchanged a glance. "Nico… I think the gods might have… What if not all the monsters are bad?"

Nico waved her off. "I'm sure not the entire population is all bad, but if you had a chance to get rid of all the monsters that we normally fight against, wouldn't you?"

Percy wanted to argue with him. What about Mrs. O'Leary and Tyson? But before he could, someone stomped up the stairs.

It was a short human kid, maybe nine or ten, wearing a t-shirt and jeans. They regarded the demigods for a minute, then turned and ran back down the stairs.

"That's the kid they all love so much?" Percy asked. He glanced over at Nico and did a double take. He had gone pale and started shivering.

"Th-that was definitely a demon…" he shuddered. "Not even an eidolon. Somehow, it's fused its soul. And it's more powerful than any demon I've ever felt. That little kid… they can't possibly have control." He turned back to them. "We have to get this done as soon as we can."

 **Logic: You can't cut the purple threads with a weapon because Frisk would have just done that when Muffet captured them. (Not that a frying pan is the best thing to cut a web with, but if you can kill an airplane with a frying pan, why not cut a web?)**

 **This is true pacifist, not soulless, but Chara's role in genocide will be very important in this, so make sure you know the story of Genocide!**


	8. Looking Deep Within One's Self

**Frisk is silent by choice. They can and do talk, rarely, but they don't like to, sorta like Chell. That's why they know sign language. At least, that's my headcannon.**

 **This chapter is a bit strange but compare it to Psychonauts and you should have an idea of what I'm trying to do. (Psychonauts is a game about entering people's minds, btw.)**

Frisk knew that it was rude to leave those kids behind, but they just wanted to make sure that they were alright, and then get to Undyne. They had a plan.

It had worked once before, they would try it again.

They raced across the camp, mustering all the DETERMINATION they could. They had heard about Undyne's current condition from Toriel when they had arrived a few minutes ago, and had nearly started crying. Poor Papyrus and Alphys. They must be worried sick.

As they ran down the path towards the other cabins, someone caught them by the back of their t-shirt. It was a cold hand, so Frisk knew exactly who it was.

"heya, kiddo," Sans greeted amicably. "i know a shortcut to where you're trying to go. follow me."

Frisk nodded, and took Sans' hand. The world flickered to darkness as they passed behind a tree. Strange words and numbers appeared around them, and eerie noises filtered through. Sans had once explained that the world was kind of like a computer, and this was the code that it used. Frisk didn't completely understand how he had accessed that code, but at least they knew what he was doing. They knew he could bend time-space to an extent too, but he had never enlightened Frisk on that and always dodged the question when Frisk asked.

Sans led them lazily ahead, and Frisk gripped his hand tightly. They did not want to get lost here.

The world suddenly brightened again, and they were standing behind a cabin that had been all the way across the camp. "work your magic kiddo." He ruffled their hair in a brotherly sort of way. "i'm rooting for you."

Frisk closed their eyes and nodded. When they opened them, Sans was already gone. He was quite mysterious.

Frisk ran around the front of the cabin and slammed the door open. Papyrus and Alphys were already in there, both looking worried, but Alphys looked considerably worse. She was trembling and pale.

Frisk hurried over and gripped her claw tightly. They signed something to Alphys, who nodded slowly. "She's in there." Alphys pointed her claw towards a small door off to the side.

Papyrus took Frisk's hand. "I'LL SHOW FRISK. YOU SHOULD PROBABLY STAY HERE."

They entered, and Undyne lay on a bed, quieter than Frisk had ever seen her. Her body was in good shape, perhaps a bit thin, but Frisk concentrated, and could see her SOUL, flickering faintly and looking rather faded.

Papyrus wrung his hands together. "ALPHYS AND SANS KEEP TELLING ME SHE'LL BE FINE, BUT… I'M NOT DUMB. I KNOW THEY SAY THOSE THINGS BECAUSE THEY THINK I'M NOT STRONG ENOUGH. I'M SCARED… BUT DOES THAT MAKE ME NOT STRONG?"

Frisk was a little surprised at the skeleton's perceptiveness. They were always a little unsure with him. He was certainly more naïve than many of his friends, but he was not stupid.

But Frisk knew where Alphys and Sans were coming from. They would probably do the same. 'Being afraid doesn't make you weak, Papyrus,' they signed. 'You aren't strong without fear, that's just being reckless.'

Their friend did not seem convinced. "UNDYNE IS RECKLESS."

'Undyne sure is strong. She's afraid too, sometimes though. She just chooses to do what's right. I know you would too, even if you were afraid.' Frisk struggled with the last part, gulping down a lump and an awful memory. _What I did was wrong, and I'm guilty,_ they thought, _but now I need to save people._

They slowly walked towards the unconscious Undyne, and gently grabbed her hand. They took a deep breath, and initiated an encounter. Their four options hovered in front of them: ITEM, MERCY, FIGHT, and SAVE. Frisk chose SAVE.

…

They were no longer kneeling in front of Undyne's bed. Instead, they were now standing in a dark void. They were seeing Undyne's SOUL, the way they had seen into Asriel when they had confronted their friends as Lost SOULs. When they had done that, however, Undyne had confronted them immediately, and there was no time to look around.

They walked finding some strange items: a pile of bones, an anime poster, a spear, and a giant sword just to name a few, as well as Sans' illegal hotdog stand.

"UNDYNE!" they called, actually using their voice, even if it was just a projection into Undyne's SOUL.

They heard a weak moan come from far off. Their face brightened and they took off towards it. "Undyne! I'm coming!"

"Frisk?" she called out feebly. "I-is that you?"

"Yes! Keep talking! I'll find you!" To their immense relief, they spotted something bright red off in the distance.

As they got closer, they found they were correct in assuming it was Undyne's hair. She appeared to be lying on the ground; her arms out in front of her. Her remaining eye was barely open in her exhaustion, and her ponytail had come undone, leaving her hair trailing out over her face.

They started to run over to her, when she cried out, "Stop!"

Frisk skidded to a halt. That was when they noticed one more detail. Undyne was not lying down. Instead, she was stuck up to her shoulders in a giant pool of a disgusting black tarry substance; her arms sprawled out in an attempt to keep herself from sinking.

So that was what happened when a SOUL fell.

Frisk cautiously made their way around the edge. They nudged the shore of the pool, and pulled back quickly in revulsion when the liquid clung to their shoe.

Undyne glared at them with renewed ferocity. "Don't even think about trying to reach me, punk. It's too late." Was it Frisk's imagination, or was she sinking just a tiny bit. "I've been trying for days, and I can't get out. You should just let me go." She closed her eye again.

Frisk saw what was happening. When she lost DETERMINATION, she would sink further. She would become truly fallen. They had to hurry.

"I'll be back!" they called out. Undyne gave no indication she had heard them.

Frisk rushed back to the piles of stuff they had seen. They tipped the sentry/hotdog stand over and began piling as many objects as possible into it. The bones and the poster were the most important, however.

It was heavy and cumbersome to steer, but Frisk did not have a red SOUL just for show. They made it back to the pool, which seemed even wider. They grabbed the bones, and touched the ends to each other. To Frisk's immense relief, they stuck together, magically. After sticking enough together, they made a sort of stiff rope. Frisk looped the rope around the sentry stand and made a loop around their own waist. It would not hold well, but hopefully it would stay.

Frisk stepped onto the liquid before their nerves could overcome them. Feeling fear was okay; letting it paralyze you was not.

To their surprise, it was like walking on putty. If they stayed still, they would probably sink, but as long as they moved, it would hold.

Undyne looked up in surprise. "FRISK! What the hell did I just tell you?!" Frisk paid her no mind.

They grabbed her arm. It was stuck pretty tightly to the goo, but they managed to pry it off. They hooked it over their shoulder and started pulling. "C'mon! Stay determined!"

She shook her head. "I'm too tired, Frisk." She sunk a few more inches. The goo reached the gills on her neck. To their immense horror, Frisk started to sink with her.

"Ugh!" Frisk pulled, frantically trying to stay on top of the goo, but unwilling to let go of Undyne. "Undyne! C'mon! Who's going to protect monsters?! Who's going to protect humans?!" Undyne still refused to move.

"Sans! That's his sentry stand! He'll slack off if you're not around! Papyrus! These are all the bones he gave you! Who'll teach him to cook?!" Frisk was sinking up to their waist, and Undyne was almost completely submerged herself.

Frisk reached into their pocket and shoved the bright pink poster towards her. "What about Alphys!? Who'll she watch anime with?! You're the one who told her never to give up! She wanted to come to the surface to be with you!"

In their struggled, Frisk lost their balance and fell into the goo. _No! I can't fail!_

Something wrapped around them tightly and pulled them out. Their head emerged and saw Undyne had gripped the chain of bones, her eye blazing. "Hang on, Frisk!" It was clearly taking a lot of effort, but she pulled herself through the tar and towards the sentry stand.

The chain snapped and they started sinking again, but Unyne was DETERMINED now, and she was not going to fall.

She summoned a spear, incredibly long and blazing with magic, and slammed it into the shore of the pool.

Frisk grabbed it with her and started pulling themselves along.

Finally, when their arms were screaming with pain, they reached the shore. With great effort, Undyne hoisted herself out and pulled Frisk with her.

The pool of tar disappeared as though it had never existed at all.

"What the hell was that?" Undyne asked. She looked much better, with no dark lines under her eyes.

"You were falling," Frisk panted. "This is your SOUL."

"Really?" Undyne scoped her surroundings. "It's like anime. I was wondering why you were talking."

"Yeah, but everyone misses you." Frisk took her hand. "I think it's time to go back."

"How?" she questioned.

"Just… stay DETERMINED," Frisk said, repeating the words they had heard many, many times.

…

Frisk rose their head, blinking in the bright light. Wait, not bright. It was lamplight. It was dark outside. They hurried to their feet. How long had they been in Undyne's SOUL for?!

"FRISK," an exhausted voice said in relief. "YOU'RE OKAY." Frisk looked up to see Papyrus, Toriel, Asgore, and Alphys watching them worriedly.

"My child, do not just fall asleep like that without telling someone," Toriel, said. "Papyrus cried again."

"I-I" the skeleton in question looked around shiftily. "ALRIGHT, I ALMOST DID. BUT DON'T TELL SANS."

"too late, bro," Sans called down from the rafters where he had apparently been sleeping. (Frisk knew better.) "at least i won't have to en _cry_ re about it later."

"HOW DID YOU EVEN GET THERE?!" Papyrus groaned. "WELL, DON'T TELL UNDYNE!"

"Too late, Paps," came a scratchy voice from behind him.

"UNDYNE!" "Undyne!" Papyrus and Alphys cried out at the same time. They rushed towards her, and Papyrus hoisted her out of the bed and began hugging her, with Alphys bursting into tears and wrapping her arms around her waist. Asgore wrapped his massive arms around them all, and Toriel smiled widely, showing off her fangs.

"heh," Sans grinned. "knew you could do it, kiddo."

 **No demis this chapter, sorry. This is setting up for something later.**

 **I got a Deviantart! I'm TearsofCHIckenSoup! I have some digital art and crap if you want to see it!**


	9. Forever Abone

**More story. (Leo like more story.)**

 **Updates may slow a bit in the next month or so.**

After waiting inside for almost three hours, Nico could not take being cramped in with everyone anymore. When no one was looking, he snuck out and headed down the path.

It was dark outside, but the path was lined with glowing, teal-colored grass, so he was able to see where he was going.

He just wanted to leave. Everything here was going wrong. He had put his friends in more danger than before because he'd just tried to kill a monster, he couldn't control a skeleton (a dead body), and now Annabeth and Piper were apparently suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Oh, and on top of all that, he still had no idea how to get that demon kid.

His negative emotions affected the grass around him, and it began to wither, losing its shine.

"Dude, what's wrong?"

Nico whirled around, reaching for his dagger, only to be relieved to find it was just Percy. He was still annoyed, though. "Don't do that."

"Sorry, man," Percy shrugged. "You looked like you didn't want to be followed, but you really shouldn't wander off."

Nico scowled. "I don't like being cramped up, no offense."

Percy glanced to the side. "Look, if you want to leave-"

"I do, but I have to stay," Nico cut him off. "Look, I know you got possessed by an eidolon and all, but no one, not even Hazel, could understand how dangerous that thing is. I…" Nico looked down at his hands. "Honestly Percy, that thing reminded me of-of…" Nico started sweating, too terrified to even say the name.

Percy's eyes widened. "That bad?"

Nico nodded. "You guys are good people, but that's why I have to be here. I have to make sure that that thing doesn't do whatever it is it wants to do."

"Then we have to-" Percy was cut off by a deep howling noise. "Did you hear that? It almost sounded like-"

"hey, guys, is this your poodle?" came a voice Nico had never heard before.

He turned and saw a skeleton. It was not the skeleton he had tried to stab. It was short and had strange cheekbones and wore a blue hoodie over a t-shirt. Behind it was a gigantic black dog that was most certainly not a poodle.

"Mrs. O'Leary?" Percy stared in shock. "Hey, get away from her!" Percy yelled.

Why on earth would the skeleton think it was a poodle? Unless… didn't mortals think that Mrs. O'Leary was a poodle? Could these monsters not see through the Mist?

Mrs. O'Leary growled protectively, and nuzzled the side of the skeleton. It patted her gently on the snout. "yeesh, i'm not hurting her. _canine_ help it if she came up to me on her own?"

Percy stopped in his tracks. "She did?"

It scratched her ears, not paying any attention to Percy. "yeah, dogs like me, and i like them. i think you can see why." It gestured to itself.

While the skeleton was focused on Percy, Nico mustered his concentration and tried to bend the skeleton to his will. Usually, even if it didn't work, he would at least be able to feel something. He felt nothing. The skeleton was very much alive.

"Who are you?" Nico asked.

"i am just a very lazy, very boring skeleton," it replied. "if you want someone interesting, go talk to my bro. yanno, the one you tried to stab to death." Its grin increased. "by the way, i'm a dude."

Nico started. It was almost as if the skeleton had known he had been thinking of him as an "it". That was kind of creepy.

"no, i wasn't reading your mind, but i know the look of people like you," the skeleton continued. "people who think that we have no emotions." His eyes dimmed. "people who think that we can't feel pain."

Nico felt something crawl down his back. Must have been a spider.

The skeleton's eyes returned back to their normal brightness. "welp, i have some very important slacking off to do, but i think i have a friend that this poodle would like to play with tomorrow." He gave her a final pat and trod off down the path into the dark.

Mrs. O'Leary ran back to Percy, and showed off an enormous bone, which Nico supposed the skeleton had given to her. Percy tugged it away in revulsion, obviously coming to the same conclusion.

"That dude is creepy," Percy shivered. "I don't think he likes us."

"I don't care if he doesn't like me," Nico replied. "I don't like him."

Mrs. O'Leary fetched the bone gnawed on it contentedly. At least someone was happy.

…

Sans examined his hands. He rubbed them together, trying to figure out what the heck that had been. He had known reality was being manipulated, but he had not been able to see it until he had activated his left eye. To his surprise, that "poodle" was actually a black dog the size of a rhino.

He grinned bitterly. Just when he thought he was done with unpleasant surprises.

"Sans?" came a deep voice from behind him. Asgore.

"sup, your majesty?" Sans replied casually, his grin returning to default mode.

"You no longer have to call me that. Is something bothering you? You have been using less puns than usual lately," Asgore inquired.

"i just don't _goat_ it in me today" Sans grinned.

"I can see how you and Tori became friends," he groaned. "But, in all seriousness, is anything wrong? I have never seen you act like this." He frowned. "At least, I do not think I have."

A lump formed in Sans' nonexistent throat as memories of a recent event that had never happened flowed into his skull. However, he did not let it show. "i'm just trying to figure something out. something sciencey… maybe. not sure." It was not a complete lie, but it was not the truth, either.

Asgore examined him for a minute. "Sans… I have been around for a very long time, and I know when monsters are lying. However, I also understand that you have many things worth hiding. Just know that you were there for my wife those many long years. In return, if you ever need to talk to me, I will listen."

"i appreciate the thought 'gore," he nodded, "but i don't think you'd understand." This was something he could not let anyone know.

Well, maybe one other… No, not even Frisk. That poor kid had been through enough.

Asgore regarded him, but left Sans alone with his thoughts.

Sans would need to get a little more information out of those teens. Depending on what happened… Well, someone was probably going to have a bad time.

 **Hmm, this chapter was not very smooth. I might need a beta.**

 **Hey, guys, I was thinking of making an Undertale fancomic based off my own personal AU (It's called Undercurse, and it's more like a really weird story than an AU.) on my DA, and a Undertale multichapter fanfic. I need all the inspiration and encouragement I can get, so if you want to PM me some of your ideas or requests, or want me to elaborate on my own ideas, I would be really happy! Don't worry; I won't post those till I finish this fanfic.**


	10. CONFIDENCE, DARLINGS!

**So, just to reiterate, I'm making a comic on my DA, TearsofCHIckenSoup, called Undercurse, but it will be a little while until it's posted, and it will be stranger than Mochis drinking the philospher's stone on the Kishin Moon (Yep, I used to be an Otaku and still enjoy manga a lot.) and a possible cute, fluffy, little Undertale fanfiction.**

 **Belongs to Toby Fox and Rick Riordan.**

The next morning, the demigods, who had thankfully been allowed to split into separate rooms for boys and girls, were awakened by a very loud, very hard to mistake, voice.

"WAKE UP, HUMAN THINGS!" he yelled, kicking open the door. "WE START OUR MORNINGS VERY EARLY HERE! YOU MUST GET READY FOR A DAY OF FUN AND EXHAUSTING ACTIVITIES! NYEH HEH HEH!"

He raced off back down the hall, and Hazel buried her face in her pillow, trying to stop an oncoming headache.

Annabeth groaned nearby. "Can he get any louder?"

"Don't tempt fate," Piper replied blearily.

Hazel glanced at her watch, as she pondered why Annabeth and Piper were acting so casual. Sure, maybe he was friendly, but Hazel did not like to trust things that were dead. Maybe she wasn't one to talk, but she wouldn't have trusted herself, honestly.

She thought back to last night on what Nico had told her. So these, monsters couldn't see through the Mist. But they could detect charmspeak, to an extent.

She filed that away. Groaning, she got on her Camp Jupiter t-shirt. Time for a fun day hanging out with demons and monsters. Hooray.

She changed out of her pajamas and got ready to go downstairs. She was so exhausted. She had had strange nightmares consisting only of a pair of brownish red eyes staring aloofly down at something. It was a pair of bright red eyes. There was a whooshing noise, and the brown eyes closed. Hazel didn't know why it was so disturbing. It must have been one of those nightmares where you got scared for no reason.

She followed Annabeth and Piper down the stairs and waited for the boys to come down. Annabeth asked the monster who was already in the kitchen something, and went off into the next room. Piper asked where the bathroom was. Ugh, Hazel was still so tired. She took a seat at the table and slumped her head down. So tired…

"Oh, dear. Are you sick, my child?"

Hazel nearly leapt out of the chair as a furry paw gripped her shoulder. It was that goat monster.  
"N-no! I'm fine!" she tried her best to look alert.

"Oh, that is good. I just wanted to make sure you hadn't eaten any strange pie lately…" she said, worriedly.

What did pie have to do with anything? "Nope, I'm fine."

"Yeah, believe me, she'd be a lot worse if she ate any bad 'pie'" said a voice she had heard briefly yesterday. There was a yellow flower, and it was sitting on the windowsill, showing off its fangs at her. How did a flower even have fangs? It was unnatural. A flower talking or moving in the first place was unnatural, now that she thought about it.

"How do you know about that pie?" the goat monster asked.

"Forget sick, I'd be dead if I ate something as nasty as me," the flower smirked, ignoring her question. The goat sighed and went upstairs, taking the flower with her.

The door to the side of the kitchen opened, and Annabeth returned, a short spider monster following her.

"Oh, my," the spider giggled, getting a good look at Hazel. "You look awful." She pulled out a tea pot. "Here, this is watered down Sea Tea. It will make you feel much more awake."

Hazel looked at the spider incredulously, as wondering why she actually thought she would drink it.

The spider shrugged. "Well, have fun doing all of Papyrus's and Undyne's workout routines when you're exhausted." She nodded to Annabeth and walked off.

Annabeth pushed the tea over to Hazel. "Muffet might look a little creepy, but she's very friendly. This stuff is good, too. Better than coffee."

Hazel stared. "I thought you hated spiders."

"Yeah, but those spiders aren't like Arachne's spiders," Annabeth said.

"And her name is Muffet… Like the fairy tale," Hazel continued.

"I'm pretty sure the skeletons are named after typing fonts," Annabeth replied.

Hazel's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "What's a font?"

"Oh, uh-" Annabeth started, before Piper yelped in surprise down the hall.

Jason hurried down the stairs so fast you would have thought the house was on fire, the other boys right on his tail.

The demigods raced down the hall only to find that it was empty. Jason threw open the door to the outside and saw…

A small crew of camera-monsters and a ghost wearing headphones, as well as a strange floating fish with a microphone. And their attention was all focused on three figures. One was Piper. The next one was the small child Nico had said was their target. The third was a metal robot shaped like a box. Hazel had briefly seen the robot, but she had no idea how he fought, or why the kid and so many cameras were there.

Piper looked quite confused. Jason tried to run to her, but was stopped by a dog dressed in a security guard's uniform. He was wearing a heart-shaped collar that said "Dogamy".

"We're going to be taking this inside in a few minutes," the dog told him severely. "Anyone unauthorized needs to remain out here. There is a TV in the shack you can watch the program on."

"B-but that's my girlfriend!" Jason sputtered in shock. He was about to reach for his sword, but Percy held him back.

"She'll be fine," the dog reassured him. "Mettaton just wants her as a special guest for his show today." He looked Jason in the eye. "Believe me. I wouldn't let someone's loved one get seriously hurt."

Jason was so surprised by the sincerity in his voice that he stopped struggling.

Hazel hoped for his and Piper's sake that the dog was right.

...(Insert sloppy POV change here)...

 **"HELLO DARLINGS, AND WELCOME TO ANOTHER EPISODE OF STYLE WITH METTATON!"** The robot practically screamed. They had moved from outside to a building that looked sort of like it was a racquet ball court. The acoustics were very echoey.

 **"TODAY AS OUR GUESTS, WE HAVE FRISK, WHO NEEDS NO INTRODUCTION."** he pointed to the child, Frisk, Piper guessed. They waved merrily at the cameramen. **"AND A HUMAN WHO HAS BEEN ALLOWED TO ENTER THE MONSTER CAMP UNDER SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES."**

Piper was really confused. Was she on live TV? She waved halfheartedly. Canned applause came from a stereo near the ghost wearing headphones. She guessed he was some sort of spooky DJ.

The robot relaxed. **"NOW, I KNOW THAT MANY OF YOU THINK THAT STYLE AND BEAUTY ARE THE SAME THINGS. WRONG!"** He made a big X with his arms. **"WHILE BEAUTY CONTRIBUTES TO STYLE, STYLE IS MORE LIKE WHAT SORT OF PERSON YOU ARE. FOR INSTANCE, THIS GIRL HERE,"** he pointed to Piper, **"IS VERY BEAUTIFUL, BUT SHE LACKS STYLE. STYLE IS MORE BASED ON YOUR ATTITUDE."**

He pointed to Frisk. **"NOW FRISK, DARLING, YOU ARE ADORABLE, BUT YOU AREN'T VERY BEAUTIFUL."** Frisk crossed their arms and pouted. For a demon, they were a very good actor. **"BUT... YOU ARE CONFIDENT! YOU HAVE STYLE! YOU CAN POSE BEAUTIFULLY! YOU ARE SO FASHIONABLE, EVERYONE THINKS YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL, WHICH IS MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN ACTUALLY BEING BEAUTIFUL! I HAPPEN TO BE BEAUTIFUL AND STYLISH, BUT IT'S MORE IMPORTANT TO BE STYLISH!"** Fireworks and smoke machines went off in the background.

 **"BUT EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT CONFIDENT,"** he said, taking on a more solemn tone, **"IT'S VERY EASY TO BECOME. THE BEST WAY TO DO IT..."** He turned to Piper, who backed away, worried where this was going, **"IS TO ENGAGE SOMEONE IN COMBAT!"**

The world around them went dark, and the ghost DJ put clicked a few buttons, and multicolored lights started shining.

The robot reached behind himself and flicked something. There was an enormous cloud of smoke, and Piper coughed. The kid stared stoically forward, taking this all in stride.

 **"Oh, yeah,"** said the robot. Piper gaped. She had briefly seen the robot transform earlier, but she had not gotten a good look before the fish lady had gone all psycho.

He had somewhat long hair, covering up one of his eyes, and wore a tight black suit, along with pink, knee-high boots. In a way, he almost reminded her of Aeolus, thinking he was fabulous, only, in a strange way, he did seem less unhinged than Aeolus, yet still quite crazy.

Her pinkish gold SOUL came into view and so did the SOUL of the little kid. They stood completely still, like this was a normal occurrence.

 **"Yes, darlings, I was just playing with you. This is actually the newest episode of 'Attack of the Killer Bot!"** he said, pulling a microphone out of nowhere. **"But don't worry! We'll have a union regulated break time, as always!"**

Piper looked around for something to defend herself and picked up a racquet. The kid just held a stick.

She swung at the robot, and hit his chest, visibly damaging him.

He gaped at her, but then straightened. **"Darling, directly attacking someone is not confidence. Let Frisk show you how it's done."**

He sent a wave of attacks out, like cross-shaped bombs, and little tiny boxy robots that threw out bombs, while kicking furiously at them both. Frisk calmly pulled out their cell phone, and their soul rotated itself ninety degrees and turned bright yellow.

Now, Piper thought she was good at dodging. And she certainly wasn't bad. But after getting a look at how Frisk dodged... She looked like the rest of the children in the Aphrodite cabin compared to them, which is to say, horrendous.

The kid barely had their eyes open, yet they raced towards Mettaton with a series of cartwheels, rolls, slides across the floor, and backflips. Along the way, they raced back and forth, shooting energy out of their soul towards every attack that came towards them, quickly jumping to the side when they hit the bombs. Finally, they reached him, jumped impossibly high, performed a triple twist in midair, and landed in a superman pose right in front of Mettaton. The camera monsters and security guards cheered, and the ghost smiled and starting almost crying.

 **"See how it's done, darling?"** Mettaton asked. **"Doesn't it look so much more stylish when you just dodge?"**

Piper had to admit, it did look pretty awesome. She felt a tapping on her shoulder. It was Frisk. They were handing their cell phone to her, and pointing at a button. It said "Yellow".

She really didn't want to trust this kid, but she took a deep breath and pressed it.

She felt a weird tingly feeling in her ribcage as her SOUL turned yellow as well. The kid held out their hand, while Mettaton smiled cockily down at them.

 **"Ready, darlings?"** He shot a wave of lightning bolts at them. Frisk grabbed her hand and pulled her with impossible strength, weaving through the bolts. It was all Piper could do to keep up.

Frisk paused as one of the little robot attack came towards them. They thrust out their arm, and their SOUL responded, shooting out a burst of yellow energy, colliding with the robot and destroying it.

They looked to Piper and leaped back, as though saying, 'Your turn.'

Piper rolled to the side and thrust out her arm. 'Fine, I'll give you confidence.' Her soul responded giving off the same power.

Frisk grinned. They jumped, landing near her and collapsed like a damsel, arm over their forehead and everything. Piper caught them in surprise.

"WOOOO!" The monsters cheered.

 **"See?"** Mettaton asked the cameras. **"It's already working. But has it improved your dancing skills?"**

A disco ball descended from the ceiling and Frisk stood up, directing their SOUL towards it. A series of white and blue lasers shone onto it, and the disco ball slowly began spinning. Frisk bowed to Piper, like, 'After you.'

This was still all so strange to her, but she used the power to hit the disco ball. Nothing happened except the color changing. She tried to dodge it, but the blue laser collided with her, quite painfully.

Frisk's face scrunched up with worry, and they made a T with their hands. Another blue laser came towards them, and they made no attempt to move. It passed through them harmlessly.

Finally, it clicked. Blue... if you didn't move when the blue hit you... you wouldn't get hurt! She stayed stock still, and it passed harmlessly through her.

The disco ball disappeared, and Frisk pulled a dirty tutu and pair of ballet shoes out, carefully putting their stick in their back pocket. They leapt gracefully up, and landed, showing off the tutu to the cameras.

 **"Adorable, Frisk,"** Mettaton said, nodding sincerely. **"How about you share your wonderful fashion expertise with her?"**

The child scrunched up their mouth in displeasure at "adorable", but handed her a red ribbon. She examined it for a minute, before tying it into her hair.

The child curtsied, then held out a hand. She knew what they were asking. 'May I have this dance?' She wondered if she should trust them, but decided to do it anyway. She was going to see what they were up to.

She accepted, and curtsied back.

 **"Let's go, darlings,"** Mettaton said. He held out his hand, and a swarm of bombs, robots, and lightning flowed from him.

Frisk took it all in calmly, and then moved fluidly through the swarm of attacks, guiding Piper, and shooting down attacks.

As Piper danced, she realized something. She had always been good at talking to people, communicating, as it were. But this… this was another form of communication. Reading their movements.

She was in perfect unison with them, the perfect amount of manipulating and being manipulated. She pulled Frisk back out of the way of a bomb before it hit them, and they spun her away from a robot.

Before she even knew what was going on, they had reached Mettaton. Her confidence faded quickly.

But… **"BEAUTIFUL, DARLINGS!"** He shouted, scooping them up into a hug and ending the battle. **"I knew you could do it! Amazing job, both of you! And here are tickets to stop into the Surface MTT resort anytime for an all night stay with a friend or special someone for the two of you. You've earned them."** He handed them each a golden coupon with bright letters on it.

He reached behind his back again, and clicked a switch, transforming back into the boxy robot. **"WELL, THAT'S ALL THE TIME WE HAVE FOR TODAY, BUT BE SURE TO TUNE INTO TONIGHT TO COOKING WITH A KILLER ROBOT! HIT IT, SHYREN!"**

The small floating fish sang a wordless song as the ghost put on another record.

Piper was somewhat fascinated. The fish was not a good singer, either, but she was confident, so she actually sounded quite good.

Frisk raced up to the microphone and hummed along with her. The fish blushed and smiled warmly.

Finally, she finished her song and the music ended.

"Thank you for joining me on such short notice, darling," said Mettaton, but somehow less robotic sounding. She turned and saw a small pink ghost with Mettaton's hairstyle. "It means a lot to have a nice guest like you on."

"Uh… no problem," Piper said.

The door burst open and Jason burst in. "Piper! Oh, gods! Are you okay?!" He checked her for injuries, then, seeing that she was okay, relaxed. "You were amazing! How did you learn to dance that well?!"

Piper blushed. "It was mostly Frisk…"

"Frisk is fantastic at everything," Mettaghost nodded. "The only person who's better than them at anything is…"

Piper knew what was coming. He was going to say himself

"Blooky." She looked over to where he was gazing, and saw Frisk hugging the DJ ghost and fish thing, who both snuggled their faces into them. The ghost was crying a bit.

Piper couldn't help but think that a demon didn't seem like the sort of person who would do something like that, or help her in a battle.

 **Sorry if I got a little philosophical there, but I wanted her to understand how having someone else control her is not always a bad thing.**


	11. Prepare for Stress, Nightmares, and FUN!

**Hmm… New Chapt.**

 **Thanks to bLuewErewOlf25 for being my beta!**

 **Zarabapha, the dusty tutu is an armor in the game. It's the armor of the BLUE child. (The dark blue, not aqua.)**

Jason wasn't sure when the last time he had seen Piper so happy was. Certainly not since Leo had died. Well, not for sure died; Jason still wasn't going to give up on him.

Still, though, Piper was smiling, and that made him happy. He wasn't sure about the demon kid, though. Would a demon really go so far as to befriend everyone?

Piper tugged the ribbon out of her hair and handed it back to them, which they accepted graciously with a nod. The tutu and ballet shoes they were wearing earlier had disappeared.

"Thank you," Piper said. "It was pretty fun."

They smiled and made a series of motions with their hands.

Piper winced a bit. "Sorry, I don't understand sign language," she apologized.

Their face fell, but a big, bluish-white blob appeared behind them. "Oooh, they're just saying you're a fast learner."

It was the DJ ghost. He was only partially visible, but he was slowly appearing. Oh, great, another undead creature that was probably going to freak Nico out.

Speaking of which, he wondered where everyone was. He had thought they were following him.

The ghost noticed him looking around. "Ooh, they probably went to the shore. Papyrus did say that he thought it was a good way to bond or something… Better than wrestling." He blushed. "Oh, that was an awful thing to say. I know she was just trying to be friendly!" He started to fade.

The kid patted the ghost on his "back", and signed what was probably a very meaningful pep talk, because the ghost started appearing again and nodding, happy tears forming in his eyes. "Ooh, thank you, Frisk. Don't worry, I didn't forget your name."

 **"WELL, BL-NAPSTABLOOK, I KNOW HOW NICE IT IS TO CATCH UP, BUT WE REALLY DO HAVE TO LEAVE,"** said an annoying robotic voice. It was the boxy robot, who was apparently a ghost in reality. **"COME BY THE HOTEL ANY TIME. MAKE SURE TO BRING THAT."** He pointed to her ticket. **"IT'S ALWAYS A PLEASURE HAVING YOU, FRISK."** He wrapped his noodle arms around Frisk approximately 6 times, before letting them go.

The ghost DJ hugged the kid, Frisk, apparently, goodbye, and followed the robot out. The floating fish rubbed up against Frisk's cheek affectionately, and whispered goodbye as well.

After they left, Frisk regarded Jason and Piper for a second, before walking up to the security dog Jason had talked to earlier. The camera monsters were packing up.

Piper looked after the monsters leaving. "They were… Really nice." She looked out the door after Frisk. "I don't know Jason. I mean, I hate doing what…" she glanced up at the ceiling, "but do you think, maybe… they're…"

Jason was glad she was holding back from getting the god's attention, but he had to agree, something didn't seem right.

The dog came over. "Told you your girlfriend would be fine. Frisk wants to know if you're going to swim with everybody. Sans' brother already made all your other friends come."

"Uh, sure? If everybody's there, I guess," Jason agreed.

Frisk came over and tugged on the dog's paw. "Oh, yeah, Frisk, I'll tell her you said hi. And make Sans take you up there sometime." He patted Frisk on the head, and went out the door.

Frisk took out an old notebook and scribbled something in it. 'Go get something you don't mind getting wet and I'll show you to the beach.'

…

The beach was very nice. The lake was clear and clean, and the sun was shining. All of the teens were there in old t-shirts and worn shorts, enjoying the water. Well, except for the black-haired kid, who was probably skulking somewhere. He probably just didn't like the light.

"NYEH HEH HEH. MAKE SURE YOU STRETCH BEFORE YOU SWIM, HUMANS!" Papyrus was wearing a swimsuit, despite it not being very necessary for a skeleton, but it was kind of funny, nonetheless.

"Hell, yeah, Papyrus," a scratchy voice nearby agreed. Frisk exhaled happily. Undyne was well enough to train with Papyrus, she must have been getting better.

"UNDYNE, YOU MUSTN'T PUSH YOURSELF TOO FAR," Papyrus chided. "YOU ARE STILL RECOVERING."

"i prefer not to push myself at all," Sans told him, appearing without notice. He seemed very relaxed, sipping a drink and spreading suntan lotion on his bones. Did these skeletons even understand anything about their anatomy? Well, Sans probably understood everything and just did it to mess with people.

"OH, NO, NOT THIS TIME, SANS!" Papyrus protested, picking him up.

Sans barely reacted at all, continuing to sip his drink, which was somehow not just flowing out of him. " _water_ you doing?"

"YOU ARE GOING TO GET SOME EXERCISE FOR ONCE!" He threw his brother as far as he could, which was actually pretty far. There was a splashing noise from the middle of the lake.

Undyne whistled, then coughed. "Nice. I could do better, though." She looked over to the two teens who had followed Frisk. "Hey, I don't mind you guys but get something across to your friend; if he so much as looks the wrong way at a Moldsmal, I'll punch his lights out."

"OKAY, THAT'S ENOUGH TRAUMATIZING CHILDREN FOR TODAY," Papyrus said, pushing her towards the water. "LET'S SEE WHO CAN DO MORE LAPS ACROSS THE LAKE. HOW MANY DID YOU GET LAST TIME? I HAD FIFTEEN AND A HALF."

"Halves don't count!" Undyne protested. "I'll get twice as many as that! Thirty-one!"

"I THOUGHT YOU JUST SAID HALVES DON'T COUNT…"

While he was distracted, Undyne raced past him and made a perfect surface dive. "I LIED!"

Papyrus raced to follow her, keeping afloat pretty well, considering he was a skeleton.

Frisk watched them for a minute, then led the girl to the Nice Cream bunny, paying for the order, and giving him a few extra G. Frisk gestured to her arm, then to the Nice Cream. They took a big bite of their own starberry Nice Cream with sparkles. Perfect. They tucked an extra treat away for later. Toriel would probably scold them for eating so many sweets, but who cared?

The girl looked like she didn't quite understand, but ate it anyway. Her eyes widened when she felt the burns on her arm fading.

Frisk grinned, polishing off the cream. Their face probably looked like they had tried to eat a tub of glitter glue, but that was okay.

Frisk left her behind with her boyfriend and hurried over to the raft. Frisk figured they should go find Sans, or else he probably wouldn't come back until he was feeling bored enough to teleport out.

They pushed the raft out and headed towards where they had seen Sans. When they finally found him, he was sleeping on the bottom of the lake, twenty feet deep. Typical.

They splashed the surface to get his attention a few times.

He opened his eyes and looked up. His grin increased, and he used his eye to float himself up to the surface. He grabbed onto the side of the raft and pulled himself up.

"'sup, kiddo?" he asked, draining the water out of his skull. "thanks for bring this, by the way."

Frisk nodded and dangled their legs in the water. They gritted their teeth, before the tears started flowing.

"woah!" Sans said, startled. "was it something i did? oh, crap, don't cry. tori'll get mad at me if you cry."

They shook their head, then decided to actually talk, since their hands were shaking. "I don't d-deserve this," they sobbed. "After what I've done, I'm just acting. I'm… I can't take this. I don't want people to think I'm nice, when I'm a horrible person."

"hey, shh, shh," Sans shushed them. He held out his arms for a hug, but Frisk backed away. They did not deserve to touch him, after he had been so kind. "look, i don't know if they made you feel that way, or if you're just stressed, but you're not a bad person. you've done some bad things, true. but i can see your soul, and i know that your decision was very painful, and that you're sorry," he comforted. "we've all done some bad things that have hurt other people. the important thing is that you are truly sorry."

"B-but most p-people haven't k-k-ki-"

"you were scared, and they were the only person who could reassure you. you can't just say that it was all them, and you'll have to live with that for the rest of your life. but you fixed your mistakes, and i'll always be there for you." He held out his arms again. "can i get that hug now?"

Frisk graciously returned it. "Th-thanks."

"no problem kid. and, if you have anymore nightmares, even if they're about… well, just come to me, anytime. i'll understand."

Frisk nodded and splashed water into their face to wipe away the tears, just in time, too.

"UGH, FRISK, WHY DO YOU GO SO EASY ON MY LAZY BROTHER? HE SHOULD LEARN TO GO BACK ON HIS OWN!" Papyrus scowled, swimming close.

Frisk chuckled. 'Sorry, Papyrus,' they signed, and blew him a kiss, just to tease him.

"DON'T DO THAT!" he yelled at them, getting flustered.

"Later, punk!" Undyne screamed as she swam past him.

Sans chuckled as he watched them race back to the shore. He took on a more serious tone. "hey, frisk… did you notice anything unusual about those kids?"

Frisk stared at him a moment. This was sort of like the time he had asked if they knew anything about a "flower". 'No, sorry. Why, is something wrong?'

He gazed out towards the shore. "nah, it's nothing. oh, by the way, thanks for the nice cream." He was enjoying a kiwi cream, which Frisk had sworn… they checked their inventory.

'Hey!' But when they looked to where Sans had been, he was already gone. "Jerk," Frisk muttered.

 **Yay! I got this done a lot sooner than expected! Just a few more chapters, guys.**


	12. Tears of Red

**Oh, there was a guest who raised an interesting point about ghosts possessing objects. I'm not honestly sure. Mad Dummy said that the Dummy used to live in it, until Frisk bored/trash talked them and made them leave, so maybe they just don't like to leave their hosts? It's never elaborated upon. I imagine that Mettaton is too vain to leave his robot till he learned a little humility from how badly he had treated Blooky.**

 **Let us see what Nico is up to.**

 **Beta'd by bLuewErewOlf25.**

 **Belongs to Toby and Rick.**

Nico scowled as he watched his friends enter the guest bedrooms. They were all laughing and smiling. Hazel and Frank were complaining a bit about how sore they were after some training routine, but in a good-natured sort of way.

It was all wrong. Didn't they see what kind of danger they were in? Didn't they know that that kid who was always smiling gently was just a true monster waiting for the right time to reveal itself?

Soon, it became dark, and Nico relaxed slightly. He immediately tensed up again when the other demigods asked him if they wanted to go to the mess hall and get some food. Were they crazy?!

However, when he protested, they told him that maybe he should give the monsters a chance. No way. He'd had too many bad experiences with monsters before. Especially skeletons.

He sighed, sitting out on the porch in the dark. His friends were probably sitting around a campfire, getting all chummy with the enemy. Mrs. O'Leary, who had apparently been sleeping near the house, sensed his mood, and licked him. He gave her a scratch behind the ears.

"sup?" said a familiar, and VERY unwelcome voice. It was that small skeleton. He had just exited the screen door of the house, but Nico swore he had seen him leave with the others. He guessed he had mistaken one of the shorter monsters for him.

"Why are you here?" Nico questioned, bluntly.

"yeesh, hostile," the monster tutted. "just wanted to introduce a friend to her." He gestured to Mrs. O'Leary, who had perked up as soon as she had seen him.

Sans whistled, somehow, and a very distorted sounding bark replied. It almost sounded like a lot of dogs barking at the same time, but deeper.

Nico turned towards the sound and his eyes widened. Bounding towards them was a dog with six legs and an enormous hole in its head instead of a face. Mrs. O'Leary perked up and barked back cheerfully.

This was going too far. "No!" he told her harshly. "That thing could hurt you!" She whimpered. He turned to the horrible anomaly. "Get away from her!" The creature took a step back in surprise, whining in confusion.

The skeleton appeared inches from his face. "they aren't a thing. they're people too, you know." He patted the thing on the side, muttering to calm it down. Disturbingly enough, its fur was goopy, like putty, and stuck to his bones slightly.

"They?" Nico asked, in disgust.

"yes," Sans replied, giving him a hard look. "' _they_.'"

Five faces lit up in between the legs of the animal. Five dog faces grinned at him.

Mrs. O'Leary took Nico's shocked silence as her cue to continue her game. She sniffed the dog, and it "sniffed" her back with its big orifice. They tackled each other, and began to play like little puppies, neither one frightened of the other.

"i wish all people were as good judges of character as dogs," the skeleton grinned coldly. "or maybe just some people."

Nico shuddered. "You don't know anything about me."

Sans nodded. "and you don't know anything about me."

Nico turned on him fiercely. "You could never understand me! Not as long as your stupid brother is alive! You've got him, and you're not even grateful, I bet! You don't know what it's like to lose someone like that! My sister died!"

The skeleton did not seem put off by this at all. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying this. "not in front of you?" he asked, tilting his head in curiosity. "just once?"

"Of course you don't care if anyone dies," Nico muttered, trying to blink back tears. "You're just a monster."

Nico saw San's hand coming towards his face. But he didn't expect the amount of force that the skeleton hit him with. The bone slammed into him so hard, he hit his head on the porch railing and slumped to the ground.

"i get that you don't want to be my friend," the skeleton said quietly. "but get something straight; you definitely don't want to be my enemy. i promised i would never hurt a human." The pinpricks of light in his eyes disappeared. **"But it doesn't count if I kill the nonhuman part of you. Fix your attitude."**

Nico swore a centipede was crawling on his back. His neck felt strangely heavy, and very sore. The lights in Sans' eyes returned and the feeling faded.

The skeleton loped casually down the steps, stopping to give Mrs. O'Leary a pat.

Nico lifted his head weakly. He was afraid. Afraid of the very thing he should be able to control. He had to act soon.

….

Nico slept soundly, trying to rid himself of the awful headache he had. But unfortunately, even if he was sleeping well, he still had nightmares.

In his dream, Sans stood in a dark hall. He was panting heavily and shaking slightly. In front of him stood a small child. For a second, Nico thought it was the kid at the camp, but their hair was too light, and while Frisk's dark skin was obviously natural, this kid had very pale skin. Blood was coming out of their mouth, and even from their eyes. They were in a lot of pain.

They held out a knife shakily, then dropped it on the ground, kicking it weakly to the side. They held out their arms, as if they wanted a hug. Nico understood. They wanted comfort. They were probably going to die, and had come to him for help.

"thank you," Sans said gently. "i know how hard that was for you. c'mere, buddy, friend, pal."

The kid stumbled towards him, and wrapped their arms around him, closing their eyes. Sans returned the gesture.

Before summoning a thousand bones to converge on the spot where the child stood. They were literally ripped to pieces.

"geeeeeeeet dunked on!" Sans laughed, gleefully, his eye sockets dark and cold. Blood was coating his entire front, including his skull and teeth, and it splashed into his eye sockets.

A hand gripped Nico's shoulder. "Look closely." Nico turned. It was Morpheus, god of dreams.

"I have a message," he told him, as the dream faded. "So far, your campmates have been fooled by the demeanor of the monsters. This is their true nature. He was going to kill the child, but did not feel like fighting them. So he offered them MERCY. When they accepted, they had no more power to attack him, and he killed them." Morpheus took a breath and continued. "Now, an even greater threat is at hand. The demon wishes to start another war between the two species. I have made the child fall asleep in the next room. Take them to Olympus immediately."

Nico gasped and awoke. He stumbled out of the room and ran into the next. Sure enough, they were sleeping soundly, their face occasionally shifting as they dreamed.

They did not even stir when Nico picked them up and shadow traveled to the top of the Empire State Building, in front of a room of gigantic super-powered beings.

"Well done," Zeus praised lightly. "Athena, is the contraption ready?"

"Yes, Father," she replied.

Nico turned and saw a huge machine shaped like a deer skull, with metal tubes spreading out into the ceiling. For some reason, he felt more uncomfortable than ever.


	13. Headaches and Shadow Warping

**Aah, your angry reviews warmed my heart, which is good because it's, like, 2 degrees Fahrenheit here, which is like -17 degrees celsius.**

Frank had to admit; he had definitely based his opinion of the monsters on looks alone. These monsters were much kinder than he had thought was possible, and they really were nothing like the monsters they fought as demigods.

They even liked campfires! A while ago, Frisk had signed to the monsters that they were getting tired and had headed back to the house, but there was still plenty of fun to be had.

Papyrus and Undyne told stories of the many shenanigans they had gotten into, and the numerous times they had burned Undyne's house to the ground. Muffet told them about how she had learned to cook using lava from a lava monster trying to steal her croissant dough. At some point, Sans appeared and told them a bunch of horrible puns, as well as some hilarious pranks involving hot dogs. Finally, Toriel calmed everyone down.

"Children, how about you tell us some of the stories from the surface," Toriel suggested. "Many of us have never heard of them."

Percy shrugged. "Okay." Since Greek myths were literally their life, he told them the story of Perseus. "And so, in the end, his grandfather only brought the prophecy upon himself by trying to stop it."

"THAT WAS A HORRIBLE STORY!" Papyrus exclaimed, hugging Undyne. "AT LEAST OUR PROPHECIES ARE NICE!"

"prophecy, bro," Sans corrected lazily. "the other one is a load of crap."

"DON'T SAY THAT WORD IN FRONT OF CHILDREN, SANS!" Papyrus scolded. Why were all the monsters calling them children?

"Why?" Annabeth asked. "What were your prophecies about?"

"Well, the more famous prophecy is the Prophecy of the Angel," Muffet explained, giving a crumb of a scone to a spider. "It states that one day, a being that came from the surface will journey to the Underground, and leave it empty."

"AND THAT ONE CAME TRUE!" Papyrus grinned, "AS YOU CAN SEE."

"Yes," Toriel nodded. "But there is another lesser-known prophecy. It is called the Prophecy of the Judge. It says that one day, a monster with the ability to read SOULs, intentions, LOVE, and inventories without even engaging in combat, will judge first the Angel, then the Overworld, and decide if it is worth saving. Their decision could rip the world apart."

"ON SECOND THOUGHT, THAT ONE ISN'T SO NICE," Papyrus consented.

"like i said, bullcrap." Sans sat up. "it's impossible to see souls without engaging in combat. plus, rip the world? i think someone just wanted attention after the angel prophecy got made."

"GEEZ, SANS," Papyrus scowled, "JUST BECAUSE YOU AREN'T STRONG AT… WHAT'S WRONG, BROTHER?" His tone changed to one of concern.

Sans had sat bolt upright, and was holding his hand to his head, panting. "tori, where's the kid?"

"Sans!" she cried, hurrying over. "What is wrong?"

"where's the kid?!" he asked more severely. Toriel took a step backwards in surprise.

"Th-they went back to the house because they were tired," Toriel explained.

A look of horror crossed Sans face. "i thought they were stargazing with the other kids!" He jumped off the log he was sitting on and raced into the dark with surprising speed.

"I-I've never seen Sans like that," Toriel said in awe.

"N-NEITHER HAVE I," Papyrus replied, shocked.

"We had best hurry to the house," Asgore said, getting up. "He is very perceptive, and something may be wrong.

…

Sans took a shortcut back to the house. He slammed open the door and raced upstairs into Frisk's room.

He stopped short. The room was empty, but the blankets were disturbed. He activated his eye. Someone had recently manipulated timespace, but it wasn't codejumping like the way he did it. He had no idea where that kid had gone.

His eye flickered back to black. **"Dammit."** He slammed his fist into the wall, making a dent in the plaster. **"I got too cocky."** He forced himself to calm down. Then he realized something. He hurriedly activated his eye again.

There was no doubt about it. Timespace was being manipulated the same way the dog had done it when she had first arrived.

He raced out of the house. "mrs. o'leary!" Haha, funny name, but he needed to focus.

The black dog raced towards him, reaching him and covering him in slobber. He guessed he tasted pretty good to a dog. Endogeny must have gone back to Alaska with the other dogs, or something. They had a weird habit of fading when they got tired of playing.

"hey, girl," he muttered softly. "can you follow him? nico, i think? do you know where he is?"

Mrs. O'Leary shook herself happily, and leaned down. Ah, she wanted Sans to climb onto her neck. He obliged, keeping his hands firmly gripped on her leather collar. She bounded forward straight into the shadow of a tree.

If he had skin, he was sure it would have tingled. The dog was racing through a dark void filled with ghosty screeches and shadows reaching out to them. He tightened his grip.

Finally, he saw it. The literal light at the end of the tunnel.

For once, he was not sure what was going to happen. He needed to be very alert. He gritted his teeth and his SOUL filled with DETERMINATION.

He was going to fight again. The same way he had done in a time that had never existed.

He shivered, and it had nothing to do with the threatening world around him.

 **Short chapter is shorter than skeleton, sorry.**

 **Ah, holy shoot, guys. Gravity Falls... *Hugs Sans* WHY!?**

 **Sans: Leave me alone.**

 **I'll miss you, Pines Twins. Glad I could contribute to the fandom before it ended.**


	14. No Escape from the Screams

**If you thought the last chapter was bad, think again.**

* * *

Nico stood off to the side as Athena, in her human-sized form, picked up the child and tied ropes around their arms and legs.  
"Hephaestus, have you properly reconfigured this?" Athena asked.

"Yep," Hephaestus grumbled. "It was difficult to work with monster made machines, but don't doubt me. It'll work on living people now."

Nico was pretty sure he didn't want to know that it did, so he stayed in the shadows, feeling a bit uncomfortable. If Sans had had no trouble killing that kid who had offered him mercy, why hadn't he killed Nico? He still didn't understand the skeleton, and he guessed he never would. He rubbed his cheek. It was dark purple and blue, and a bit swollen around his eye. He'd take some ambrosia later.

Athena tied the kid to machine and pulled some scary looking tubes down to their chest. She moved to the control panel, and Hephaestus came over to help her.

The kid stirred, blearily opening their eyes a bit and making a small noise of confusion. Their head perked up when they realized they were tied. They looked around frantically and shrunk back from the giant gods, straining to tug their hands out of the ropes.

They locked eyes with Nico. Nico had never seen their eyes before. They were big and brown and warm. Their breath began to come in short terrified pants. They whimpered.

"Please," they begged.

Nico started. He had not known they could talk. He felt really uncomfortable. Even he was beginning to have second thoughts.

"Don't listen to them," Hades told him from behind. "It's not a child."

They got a good look at the machine and tears started gathering in the corner of their eyes. "My DETERMINATION..."

"This power does not belong in the hands of a demon," Athena told them severely.

They sobbed. "I'm not Chara! Not anymore! I changed!"

"Ignore what th-" Zeus started, but was cut off by a whooshing noise from across the throne room.

There was a loud, familiar bark. "Mrs. O'Leary?" Nico said incredulously.

Something blue and white hopped off her back. Nico scowled. He just couldn't lose this guy, could he?

"sorry to crash the party, but i don't think it's age appropriate for frisk," Sans greeted quietly, his tone not containing an ounce of humor. Both his eyes were closed, and his form was relaxed, but Nico was sure that he was calculating a plan.

"Sans!" they gasped in relief.

"A skeleton," Hades mused. "It's actually living. And it somehow got a hellhound to help it."

" _the skeleton_ has... well, the skeleton doesn't have ears, but _it_ can still hear you," Sans replied, still keeping his eyes shut. "and _it_ would like you to know that he's a boy, and he has a name."

Demeter looked down at Nico. "Kill it. This is not a place where monsters should ever set foot."

Nico pulled out his sword and ran towards Sans.

Sans sighed and lazily opened his eyes. His right eye was dark and cold, but his left eye...

His left eye now had an aqua iris which blazed, even in the bright room.

Nico slowed just a bit, and in that split second, Sans thrust his arm out to the left. Nico heard a ping, and felt as though someone had just stuck a shark harpoon into his chest, tied it to a truck and driven the truck to his right at a hundred miles per hour. He smashed painfully into a pillar, sure that he had broken at least a rib.

He worked to force himself up. It was hard and painful, but he needed to do it. He needed to show the gods that their children were worth paying more attention to, even if it meant fighting that skeleton till he died. That had been his true motive since he'd begun.

...

Sans tried to pull away from the gold ropes wrapping around his limbs. After he had gotten that dirty kid out of the way, he had tried to get to the DT extractor, before the powerful beings in front of him had sent out a wave of ropes. He had been able to dodge the first few, but he wasn't as good at sensing things that weren't alive and as soon as one touched him, he lost the ability to teleport. He struggled against them, but couldn't get out.

"my magic-" he gasped, trying to reach out his hand to summon a bone attack.

"Those ropes were designed for monsters. It bind their magic inside of them," the black-haired lady explained, without turning away from the switches of the machine.

"Sans!" Frisk cried out.

"Say nothing else," the plant lady said coldly.

The black-haired lady flicked a final switch and the machine shuddered to life.

"Take it slow," a guy dressed like an engineer told her. "It's obviously never been tried before."

"no!" Sans cried out. "frisk!"

"Sans!" they yelled back. Their eyes widened and their SOUL began to glow brightly inside them as the machine hummed louder. Bright red liquid began to flow out of their SOUL and up the tubes. They screamed in pain and started sobbing.

"frisk!" Sans screamed to them, desperately trying to use his magic, only to have it spark inside his chest painfully. "augh!"

"Sans..." Frisk gasped weakly, losing consciousness. "... kill me." Their head flopped down.

"no!" he cried out. "stop! you don't know what you're doing!"

"I know that there is a scourge on this earth we must rid the world of," the leader being said to the monster. Mrs. O'Leary whimpered from the other side of the room, but was clearly too afraid to show herself to the beings.

Sans eyesockets widened. His trumpcards: a huge pool of magical ability, teleportation, and timeline manipulation... he'd never thought he'd be without them. He was now what everybody thought he was. A weak monster who could never even match a froggit in battle, much less an awesome guy like Papyrus.

'papyrus,' Sans thought as he saw the spear of the huge being come towards him. 'hehe, sorry bro. never wanted you to have to deal with losing a sibling. not that i was a very good sibling to begin with.'

A giggle interrupted his thoughts.

He had heard this noise before, in a time that had never happened, and it scared him much worse than the spear. Because it reminded him of some objects that had come closer than anything else to ending the world.

A stick, a toy, gloves, ballet shoes, a torn notebook, a frying pan, an empty gun.

A knife.

...

Nico struggled to his feet slowly. He had been stunned for a few seconds, but he had fought with worse pain before. He'd live. The skeleton, on the other hand...

He looked up and saw Zeus preparing to impale him. No! Nico needed to show them that he could finish a job!

A giggle stopped him in his tracks. It was coming from near the machine.

Zeus stopped. "I thought they were unconscious."

"Should be," Hephaestus grunted. He got closer to give the kid a look.

Frisk raised their head slowly and smoothly, as though they were looking up at a good friend, and not having their life force sucked out of them. They grinned, but the expression seemed as though it didn't belong on their face.

There was a whooshing noise.

Nico didn't understand it. One second, the machine had been functioning perfectly. The next, it was broken to pieces and falling to the ground. Almost as if it had been cleanly sliced to pieces.

Athena gasped and stepped away. "They should be weaker!"

"Oh, they are," said a gentle voice Nico had never heard before.

The gods lost their concentration on the ropes and Sans pulled himself out of them, stepping back.

The dust from the wreckage of the machine settled, and Frisk emerged from it.

Actually, it wasn't Frisk. Frisk had been wearing blue pajamas with purple stripes. This kid was wearing a green sweater and brown pants. Frisk had darker hair and darker skin. Frisk had not been wearing a heart-shaped locket around their neck. Frisk's smile was not so large.

Frisk did not have blood-red shining eyes.

Nico was surprised because he had seen this child before. They were the one whom Sans had killed.

Sans scrambled a little further back until he was closer to Nico. His expression had become one that was calmer, but Nico had seen this expression before on other demigods. He was afraid.

The child shook the dust out of their hair and sneezed. "Greetings." They turned to face Sans and Nico. "It is so nice to see you again, Judge."

Sans nodded politely. "same... **Chara, you dirty brother killer."**

* * *

 **C=**


	15. It's Raining Here

Percy looked around the yard for the kid. His friends and the other monsters searched nearby with flashlights.

Now, he wasn't dumb. He had noticed Nico was not around and was very, very afraid that the son of Hades had done something with them. But he wanted to believe Nico wouldn't do that.

He was so caught up in his search he didn't see the root in the ground until he had already tripped over it.

"Whatcha doin?" a cheerful squeaky voice asked.

That flower. How did he get out of the pot?

"Hehe, Temmie accidentally knocked me over earlier," he chuckled. "If you're looking for Frisk, you're wasting your time. I saw your friend take them. Then I saw Trashbag take your dog somewhere."

Percy hurriedly pulled his leg away from the root. So, Nico had done it. Percy wasn't sure what to say. The poor kid had been through a lot, but why...

But what had Sans been so worried about? Why did he take Mrs. O'Leary?

"Funny thing... I didn't know dogs could teleport," the flower remarked lazily, almost as an afterthought.

"He made her shadowtravel?!" Percy burst out.

"Oh, so that's why Trashbag didn't... Hehe, wow, he must be scared right now!" The flower delighted in his discovery, whatever it was. "If he's going after your friend, I'd hurry. If he decides he wants to kill your friend, well... your friend isn't as strong as Frisk. They'll die."

"There's no way they're stronger than Nico," Percy argued. "They're just a little kid."

"No? Well, is 'Nico' strong enough to make a journey through a mountain of monsters without killing any of them?"

Percy got up hurriedly.

"Wait!" Flowey called after him. There was something in his voice that was new. It was... desperation? "I don't care what happens to Sans. But please... Please don't let Frisk get hurt."

"What do you mean?" Percy asked him.

"It... It's nothing," the Flowey waved his leaves dismissively. "Just... Frisk is a very dear friend of mine, even after what I've done." He laughed bitterly. "In fact, after what I've done to Trashbag, putting me in the laundry machine is more than fair. And I've done worse things to Frisk." He looked at Percy again, and his eyes were filled with pain. He brightened. "Welp, see ya!" And he sunk into the ground, the only proof that he had ever come being a small disturbance in the dirt.

Percy snapped himself out of his surprise and raced back to his friends. There was only one place Nico could have gone. And it was two states away. He was definitely going to need Hazel's help.

…

"Man, I feel really bad lying to her," Percy mumbled, his sword lighting the dark tunnel they were in.

Or, specifically, the Labyrinth. It had been destroyed when Daedalus had died, and it was not as big nor as treacherous as before, but Pasiphae's resurrection had brought it back to a degree.

"We had to," Frank replied. "She thinks we're kids too."

After Percy had heard the news from Flowey, he had quickly spread it to his friends.

Hazel immediately told them she had sensed an entrance to the Labyrinth nearby, which sent the rest of the demigods into action.

But before they had reached the entrance, Toriel had found them.

"Oh, children," she sighed, on the verge of tears. "Please keep looking for my child."

"Oh, we are," Annabeth said, quickly coming up with an argument. "Percy, Hazel, Frank and I were going to go to the lake. Jason and Piper were going to stay and look around in the woods."

Toriel looked at them. Almost looked through them. Her eyes were glowing a warm and sad reddish brown.

"Alright, but one more of you should stay here," she said. "We cannot find Sans or your friend either, and I am very worried. I would prefer if Annabeth stayed, since she cannot use magic like you can."

Annabeth tried to protest, but Percy didn't want to bring her to a potentially dangerous place. "That sounds like a good idea, uh, Aunt Toriel."

Annabeth shot him a death glare, but Percy wolf-glared back. She had almost died in front of him enough times; he wasn't going to let it happen again.

"Come with me, Child," Toriel said, grabbing Annabeth's hand like she was her mother.

Once she was out of sight, the rest of the demigods snuck into the entrance, which was concealed beneath a storage shed on the shore.

"Where are we now, Hazel?" Percy asked.

She stared ahead, carefully considering each turn and crossroad in the path. "Just a few more left turns and we should be just a block from Olympus when we come out."

"How many more is a few?" Frank asked.

They turned left and ended up at a ladder that led up to what appeared to be a manhole cover. "Uh... one, I guess?" Hazel replied sheepishly. "My sense don't work to their full extent down here. But this should be it."

Percy climbed up the ladder and used Riptide to pry the manhole cover up carefully.

He did not expect the blast of rain that hit him in the face. If he had not been immune to water, he probably would have lost his grip.

He forced it open and saw that they were in an alley. It was raining cats and dogs, and he heard thunder. He climbed up, and helped Hazel and Frank out.

To a mortal, it raining like crazy wouldn't really have meant anything, except to get indoors as soon as possible. But to them, they knew that it meant one or more gods were either cranky, or something was going wrong.

"We gotta hurry," Hazel yelled over the wind.

Percy looked up and saw the Empire State building close by. Lightning crackled around it, and dark clouds churned. He saw a few pedestrians stopping and pointing. They weren't that blind.

"We have to get up there now!" Percy shouted. "Frank, could you lend a hand?"

Frank braced himself and concentrated, transforming into a giant dragon. They climbed on him, and he soared out of the dark alley, straight towards Mt. Olympus. He had to dodge a few lightning bolts falling from the churning clouds.

"Be prepared for whatever's going on!" Hazel told them, pulling out her sword. Percy responded in kind.

If whatever was happening was rattling the gods this badly... they needed to get Nico, and hopefully Frisk and Sans, if they were there, out as fast as possible. After all, Sans was rather weak from what they'd heard from Papyrus and Undyne, Nico was just one demigod, and Frisk was a little kid.

 **C= C=**


	16. Canis Cantio

Fatal Error has occurred. An excellent fanfiction 'power_made_you_blind .docx' has stopped working. Please reload the page and try again.  
If the problem persists, consult the author, Chi-Chi_s_Poptart or the management team, bLuewErewOlf25, in order to initiate True Reset.

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Update [6:12 AM EST]: This is the management team. We are currently RESETing the fanfic, and bringing the timeline up to speed. We just need to deal with this annoying white dog that keeps ripping holes in the fabric. We will patch them up soon. -bLuewErewOlf25

Update [6:32 AM EST]: This is the management team. It seems Chara continues to mess with the fanfic, despite our efforts. Dont worry, you'll still receive your chapters. But unless Chara is purged, the ending of this timeline will be...bad.

-bLuewErewOlf25


	17. Restoration of Faith

The tension in the room was immeasurable as Sans and the child, Chara, apparently, gave each other wide eyed looks. Both their grins grew wider.

"Y-you're dead..." Nico stuttered. "Sans killed you."

"Yes," they nodded.

Zeus rose up. "First monsters, now ghosts." He held out his hand and a lightning bolt appeared in it. "Both must be destroyed." The other gods summoned various projectile weapons.

Chara watched, looking curious.

Without warning, ten superpowered attacks hit them straight in the chest. Ten more attacks came towards Sans.

Nico looked to his side. Sans was gone. At first, Nico thought he'd been destroyed. Then he heard his voice from the other side of the room.

"that's wasn't a very good idea," he chided, shaking his head. He pointed a bony finger to Chara from atop the giant-sized pedestal he had somehow gotten onto.

Chara had been pushed across the hall by the attacks, their boots leaving skid marks on the floor. Their head faced the ground.

Sans grinned laxly. "chara, LV 19, kills 104, ATK 99, DF 99, HP... 91/92."

Chara looked up and smiled. "That will not work when I'm wearing this, unless you're Sans." They gently tugged the locket around their neck. "And your turn is up."

There was a whooshing noise, and ten slashes.

Nico didn't understand it. One second, the gods had been standing there with their attacks. The next, they were gone.

Sans hopped down. "huh, guess they weren't worth the effort?"

"No," Chara shook their head. "I have no interest in beings I cannot gain EXP from. You two are what I want. Or, rather, just the weaker one." Chara turned to Nico.

In one horrible moment, a wave of hatred and despair washed over him. It was worse than when he had seen Chronos. It was worse than the giants he had fought. It was worse than Gaea. It was even worse than Tartarus. There was something about them that was so much more horrible, but he couldn't lay a finger on it. He collapsed to his knees, sweating pouring from his face, and vomited on the floor.

Chara's eyes ripped open, and blood poured from the empty sockets, as well as from their mouth. "Finally."

There was a slash, then a series of numbers.

He blinked and he was on the other side of the hall, next to Mrs. O'Leary, who whimpered and cringed. Sans' grip was tight on his arm.

Chara watched them from the center of the room, where Nico had just been standing a second ago.

"So, you're finally intervening before I kill someone," Chara stated. "Even if it is because I will win, it surprises me. After all..." they lowered their head, blood dripping onto their sweater, _"you did not stop Frisk when they killed him."_

Sans grinned, the lights in his eye sockets disappearing. "it's been fun, kid, and i'll see you in a few. take your time, enjoy the scenery."

He gripped Mrs. O'Leary's collar and Nico's arm tighter and stepped forward slowly, just as Chara started running towards them.

A split second before they brought their knife down on Sans' skull, the world around them dissolved into strange incoherent sentences. Sans lazily led them through, Nico stumbling after him, his mind still in a daze.

Sans took one more step and the world around them cleared. They were in one of the smaller temples of Olympus.

Nico collapsed to the ground with the relief of being able to breathe again. Mrs. O'Leary howled and charged straight into a shadow. Nico considered doing the same when he heard a familiar pinging sound.

He was slammed into the pillar behind him, his SOUL glowing a dark blue inside his ribcage. His broken rib screamed in protest.

Sans stood in front of him, his hand outstretched, eye sockets and smile wide with rage. **"You bastard. Do you know what you just did?"** he questioned in a strange echoing voice. Nico realized he wasn't talking. The voice was coming from inside Nico's head.

"Augh!" Nico cried out in pain. He pulled out his sword, but he was out of reach of the skeleton.

In response, the skeleton held out his right hand, and a broken cracked bone appeared in it. Sans stepped forward and slashed down on Nico's chest, quickly jumping back when Nico attempted to hit him.

Nico gasped in pain. It wasn't just the pain of having his skin broken. It felt like someone had dumped alcohol into the wound and set it ablaze. It burned like poison. The crawling feeling on his back increased to the point where it felt as though spiders were crawling underneath his skin. His neck sagged with an invisible weight.

Sans' eye flared up, this time in bright yellow. **"I could kill you right now, and I'd be justified, because you're a sinner. Karmic Retribution only affects those with a high amount of Execution Points. What are your sins?"**

Nico huffed in agony as the poison spread through him. He thought about it. What had he done? Nothing. Or, that was what he tried to tell himself. He thought about his past. Had he killed monsters he had encountered in the past? Yes, but they were attacking him. But what about those monsters? another part of him argued.

These monsters have homes and families. Did he ever try to get along with the other monsters like Telkhines and Hellhounds, he had met? Was there ever another way? Maybe. Maybe not. But either way, he had killed them without trying.

And as he thought about some other things he had done. He had tried to bring his sister back. That was wrong, and he'd known it, but he'd done it anyway. He'd brought good out of it with Hazel, but he was not even sure that Bianca wanted him to try something like that.

All at once, the feeling of pain stopped and Nico was dropped to the ground. Sans let out a growl. Nico lifted his head and saw a sword at Sans' neck.

"Get away from him," Percy Jackson said to Sans. Frank, Hazel, and he had somehow arrived

"heh, i have a bone to pick with you, too," Sans chuckled.

Percy flinched in surprise when suddenly all his sword was pointed at was thin air.

Sans stood on the other side of the hall, placidly observing them with his normal pinpricks of light. "it's beautiful here. birds are singing, flowers are blooming. in places like this, monsters like me... **get really tired of doing this."**

He thrust his arm up and a sea of bones flowed from the floor, the only route of escape being a tiny winding path.

Percy weaved mostly out of the way, but was nicked on the arm, shuddering when the poison took effect. Sans tore his attention from him and forced Hazel to the wall, from which bones sprouted and hit her legs.

Sans was no longer interested in either of them, even though they were charging towards him with swords.

He dodged out of the way, as Frank, now in the form of an eagle, dove towards him. Frank swooped back up and prepared to dive again.

He never got the change. A giant skull, resembling a dragon, appeared in the air next to him. It leered for a split second, before opening its maw and unleashing a blast of light. It hit Frank and sent him to the ground, where he transformed back into a human.

Sans' eyes went dark and he smile wider. He was barely four foot five, but for some reason, he looked like he was looming over them. **"You're all dirty sinners."** He fell to his knees. "and there's nothing worth saving in this world."

His sockets were still dark, but he looked so weak, so tired, almost... dead, and not because he was a skeleton.

Percy raised his sword over the skeleton's head, and he did not even look up. Nico doubted he would make any move to get out of the way.

"Wait!" Nico shouted. "Don't kill him!"

Percy stopped and looked back at him. Sans chuckled without humor. "it doesn't matter. i don't want to live. no matter what i do, no matter what i say... the world is just a horrible place. sure there's some good things, like my bro, but... i finally put my faith in someone, and now... it's my duty to kill them."

The skeleton looked up, and he looked so old, the lines under his eyes increasing. "if i kill them, they'll die. without chara's and frisk's combined determination, they can't reset. i save the world. but for what? flowey has that power now, and... i don't want to live with that anymore."

"Why would you say you want to die?" Hazel asked him, suddenly looking angry. "I've died! Do you know how horrible of a thing it is to say you want that to happen to yourself?!"

"haha, funny story," Sans replied hollowly, in a way that definitely made it sound like he didn't think it was very funny. "i've committed suicide, fallen, killed and been killed, and watched my friends and brother die more times than i can remember." He turned to Nico. "you said your sister died. what if you had to watch her die right in front of your eyes so many times that you convinced yourself trying to save her was useless, because no matter what you did... it wouldn't make a difference."

"i assume you know about the resets, right?" Sans asked them. "otherwise, you wouldn't have brought frisk here." Damn, this guy was perceptive. "i've lived through them. i understand wanting to destroy that power, but wanting to own it? anyone who does... is going to bring a lot of pain upon themselves and others."

"and now... the person who i finally decided to trust, who i thought would..." he pulled his hood up.

"What even happened?" Frank asked him, steadying himself.

"those people told you frisk was inhabited by a demon, right? well, that's true. that's chara, the first human to ever fall into the underground. they hated humanity, monsters, anything living, the world, the universe. nothing ever pleased them. so they committed suicide in an attempt to start another war between us. but they failed. and then frisk fell on their grave. i don't completely understand it, because frisk sure didn't want to talk about it, but i guessed they listened to chara when chara said the only way to be strong was to kill." Sans' smile grew more weary. "and then they killed my brother. it wasn't until they got to me that they realized what was going on. chara was almost in complete control of their body. it took a long time, and i had to kill them over, and over, and over, and over, but i guess frisk finally managed to get enough of their own determination to overpower chara. they reset and let us to the surface."

Hazel looked a bit sick. "So you're saying that Frisk is more powerful than a demon?"

"no, they're just more determined. if chara kills one more person... they'll destroy the universe. if they had managed to do that in the underground, it wouldn't have been so bad. i mean, everything i ever cared about would have been destroyed, but at least chara wouldn't have completely won..." He started chuckling. "and now, somehow, saving the underground has brought us closer to the end of everything ever." He started outright laughing. He was clearly not feeling well at all. "it's like some hilarious joke about how everything you ever do will never matter!"

Percy looked to Nico. Nico was pretty creeped out himself, but he limped closer to Sans. He grabbed Sans' hoodie and shook him. "What do you mean? How do we stop it?"

Sans' senses seemed to come back. "sorry. if you're gonna die, i guess you at least deserve to know how." He cleared his throat. "prepare for a really stupid metaphor." He held out his hand and a laptop appeared in it. He opened it up and showed it off to them. "so say that the world, the universe, is a computer. there are other worlds connected to it, like the underground, whatever this place is, and many, many more."

Nico thought about that. Tartarus, the Underworld, Nix's realm, the Labyrinth. Apparently, Percy and Annabeth had met some kids who knew about more.

"those are like games." He opened up a file on his computer to reveal a bunch of games, varying from silly googly-eyed kitties making tea to games filled with blood and gore about killing a race of cyborg zombies.

"I don't understand this..." Hazel said.

"don't worry, it gets even better," Sans told her coldly. "chara is like a virus. they'd been in the underground, one of the 'games'. if they had succeeded in destroying it... sucks for the monsters, but everything else is still fine. you just can't ever access it again."

Nico cringed, seeing where this was going. "but say that the virus reaches the computer..." A bone shot up through the floor and smashed the computer to bits. "everything, including the games, is gone, now."

Frank and Percy's eyes widened. "Wait, how did Chara get back in control?!"

"ask your friend," Sans told them. This guy was pretty smug, considering it was the end of the world.

Nico reluctantly told them of the strange machine and what had happened to Frisk. "It was my fault. I... I can't believe they'd conceal the truth like that... And poor Frisk."

"Poor Frisk's family," Hazel said. She helped Sans to his feet. "What do we do? We can't kill them or we really will start a war, but if we don't..."

Sans took a deep breath, despite not having lungs. "i don't think so…?"

"There is, but the thing you need to accomplish it is currently in possession of a demon." They turned to see a woman with silver hair watching them.

"so it does exist…" Sans growled.

"Lady Hera," Hazel said, bowing. "What happened? Why did you come to us?"

"I disagree with my husband, as does Artemis," Hera sighed. "I had no desire to harm a child this way."

"i bet that's a lie," Sans muttered, without fear.

Hera's gaze grew a little more cold. "And why would you think that?"

"because," he said, shadows gathering around his sneakers, "i think that you were just scared of chara."

Hera stared at him with wide-eyed anger. "I won't deny that the demon makes me uncomfortable. But I know the child has the power to control them. And the child has reunited families. And they have strengthened your bond with your brother. I want you to restore them, and show the gods that you are not a scourge."

"how 'bout instead, i kill these kids, and absorb their souls and become a god myself?" Sans replied coldly. The demigods tightened their grips on their weapons. "because i really don't feel like having anything to do with you creatures."

"I know you won't, because you are scared of that power," Hera told him sternly. "I know you are not the... well, monsters, that my husband and the others think you are. Some of you have better judgement then the gods do. And I want to protect your families. You are the Judge. It is your duty to guide others. And it is your duty to decide whether to save our world, or to let it die, and your brother, friends, and Frisk with it. The choice is yours."

She disappeared in a shower of lotuses.

"what a nice lady." He glanced over at them. "i was joking. i don't want your souls, but i do have a plan. this is a really big risk, and might make some people really mad at me, but it should save the world." He took a deep breath, and told the demigods his plan. "can you see in the dark?"

 **C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C=C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C= C=**


	18. A Light in the Darkness

Chara idled lazily down the path. They took their time to breath in the sweet smell of flowers and spices. They took in the sight of the beautiful temples. And They listened.

At this point, Their eyes had turned back to normal, but there was still blood caked underneath them.

They slipped between the columns of a temple and waited a minute.

BUT NOBODY CAME.

Oh well.

They slipped back into the light and continued further from the big temple at the top of this… mountain thing. They still needed to get back to the real world.

They clutched their chest as pain arose in Their SOUL. Frisk.

Frisk was certainly not a fighter, but when they absolutely had to… Well, Chara was struggling to keep them under control even with the DETERMINATION Frisk had lost.

"Quiet!" They hissed, asserting Their dominance over Frisk's DT.

"you know, arguing with yourself isn't weird; it's when you argue with yourself and lose that you have a problem."

There he stood, just as he had in a time that had never existed, somehow covered in darkness even though the room was filled with bright lanterns that prevented any shadows from forming anywhere else. His eyes were close, as though he was pretending he had no idea what was coming. Ha. Chara wasn't sure how much he remembered, but They knew that it was enough.

Unfortunately for him, They knew more than enough.

"Let Me pass, Judge," They commanded, baring Their knife. "I'll let you wish your brother and your friends goodbye before I end this world, if you do."

"mmm, hmm, that's a nice offer," Sans tilted his head. "but the whole world ending is a bit of a turnoff. nah, let's just end it here." He opened his left eye. "but... before we do, ya'know, fight and all, I need to ask you something." He glared at Them threateningly. **"How did you manage to keep your LOVE?"**

Chara was not intimidated in the slightest by this. "How much do you know about RESETs?"

Sans laughed. "too much, yet at the same time... not enough. Honestly, I'm just really good at guessing and piecing things together. I really can't remember a lot. most of the stuff frisk didn't tell me, i just speculate, but no one ever says it's wrong."

"You are disturbingly accurate," Chara stated. "But... you amuse and challenge Me, so I will tell you." Chara dropped Their grin. "You know that there is only one SAVE file, correct? Only one person controls the RESETs? Before you killed Me 137 times, Frisk and I had the most DETERMINATION combined, so we had control over _the_ SAVE file. But I had control over Frisk." Their eyes glittered red. "Fortunately for you, through the course of our battles, Frisk worked up the DETERMINATION to overpower My own. Before they did, however, I saved My LOVE directly onto their SOUL. Frisk still had control of this body, but if I ever managed to overpower their DETERMINATION... well, even I thought it was a silly hope, but look where it got Me."

Sans showed no change in expression as he took this in. It was infuriating, but Chara bided Their time. "and getting rid of those guys in one shot?"

Chara clicked Their knife against Their locket in disgust. "Beings without DT cannot even stand to be near someone with so much LOVE, immortal though they may be. Even if their essence still exists, I cannot actually kill them. While you monsters certainly have less, you can at least stand a little bit if I do not land a good hit on you. Well, except for you and the captain. But since you have asked a question, I would like to ask one as well: where is the child?"

"well, one of them's right in front of me," Sans mocked.

"The other child. His SOUL is... different. I want to see if I can absorb it," Chara growled.

"not happening," Sans summoned a semicircle of bones behind himself.

Chara tilted Their head back. "Honestly, are you really going to kill Me? I don't think you are." They shifted Their knife to a more comfortable position. "But, I wouldn't mind fighting you just one last time, before I end this worthless world." They twisted Their neck to get the cramps out. "137 deaths, yes? Let's make it 138 by adding yours to it."

"let's just get to the point." Sans slipped behind them and started his attack, the way he always did. Chara was not injured in the slightest.

...

The demigods watched the battle from afar. It seemed like Sans had the upper hand, but Chara was more amazing, in a way, because they could not use magic or teleport. They raced around bones, and jumped out of the way of nearly every attack despite having gravity increased for them. They were even more incredible than Frisk had been, moving with very little effort.

Sans was become steadily more tired, and the knife blade came closer to hitting him. Chara had only been hit once or twice, but they looked exhausted as well. It was probably the poison.

Sans spread out his arms, as though negotiating. Chara ignored him and attacked.

Hazel clenched her fist. 'There it is.'

Nico grabbed his sword. "Right now, right? We have to be ready."

...

Sans started panting, sweat dripping down his skull. Chara had seen this before.

"alright, you already know my special attack, right? there's no point in me wasting time showing you," he huffed. His left eye lit up. **"So, instead, I'm just going to bet everything on this one move."**

He stretched his arms out and concentrated, tiny pinpricks of magic filling the air around him. They coalesced into hundreds of bones and tens of skull cannons.

Chara snarled. "If you kill Me, you kill Frisk. You wouldn't dare." Chara wished they could attack, but it was not Their turn. Honestly, fighting Sans had not tired Them out at all. It was fighting Frisk that was difficult. That was why Sans had been so hard to beat back then.

However, They were not sure They would be able to survive an attack They had never seen.

"there are more important things at stake here than their life," Sans panted. "sorry, frisk."

Frisk did not seem sad at all to hear this. They continued to fight Chara, but they were not scared that they might die. In fact, they seemed more determined than ever to impede Chara's movements.

The bones and cannons finished forming. Sans was struggling to stay upright, but he thrust his left arm out. Chara was forced to the ground.

"Fine, I'll die," Chara taunted. "It won't keep me away! I'll just come back when you're vulnerable! In fact, I'll let you suffer and let your brother abandon you after he finds out what you've done! Isn't dying better than that!? The thing that matters most to you in the world hating you?!"

Sans said nothing. He simply lifted his right arm high. His left eye was practically on fire. **"Goodbye, Chara."**

He thrust it forward. Chara's sense heightened, and They dodged the bone that came straight for Them.

Everything else was still. "… Are you kidding me?"

"oh, yeah, that's embarrassing." He brought his hand all the way down. The bones shot through the air, and the blasters opened their jaws.

Chara wove through it with ease. It simply required constant movement in a zigzagging pattern. In fact, all the attacks did was hit the lanterns and pillars lining the path. Soon, the stars were the only thing lighting the world.

Sans' legs came out from under him. He kneeled on the ground, trying to stay conscious.

"Pathetic." Chara raised Their knife. Their eyes ripped open. It was painful, yes, but They had no control over it.

Sans mumbled something. "-your turn."

"Your turn is over." Chara brought down the blade.

 **"I said WAIT YOUR TURN."**

Chara whirled around at sensing another presence. Something knocked them to the ground and stepped on their back. They couldn't see well because of the dark, but it was heavy and moved on four legs.

Chara's knife had been knocked out of Their hands, but They could vaguely see the steel glinting in the silver light.

Chara was a little kid. They were not strong. But They were resourceful and They had played wrestling games many times with Asriel. They knew how to get this thing off. They licked Their hand, making sure to get a lot of spit on, and slapped the thing in the face. It felt as though it was a giant cat, but They couldn't be sure.

Either way, it worked. The creature's grip loosened, and Chara slipped out from under its legs. They dashed forward for the knife, when suddenly, the ground shook underneath Them and They tripped, sliding across the floor. "Oof!" Their knee hurt, but They didn't care. Chara still couldn't see well, but They knew that there were humans, or at least, partially human SOULs. They had sensed this when Frisk had been in control. It was those hybrids.

Chara growled. At this point, they had only been curious. They didn't actually want to go out of Their way to try to absorb their SOULs. It would all end, anyway.

Someone charged towards Them with a weapon, but Chara didn't see the glint of metal, so They assumed it was a stick. Ha, almost as if they were afraid of hurting Chara. Chara effortlessly ducked, and jumped backwards, even in the low light. It was almost laughably easy.

Chara landed a kick on them. Without a weapon, it was impossible to kill, but They could still manage a good bit of force.

While Their enemy was distracted, They ran back to the knife.

They equipped the Real Knife.

They charged towards Sans, who tried to back away.

They felt the presence appear behind Them.

They felt the prick in Their shoulder.

They realized what was going on just a second too late.

As the kid from earlier pumped the syringe of Frisk's DETERMINATION into them.

Oh, so that's why their inventory had felt empty after Sans had dodged the first time. They should have noticed. If he had been able to do it for something like Nice Cream, why not DT? They should have remembered he had gotten stronger.

Oh well. At least it had been interesting.

"I suppose you've won," They sighed as they lost all control of Their limbs. "Take care of Frisk. Believe Me, I know I'm a horrible enough person that you don't want this happening again."

They were forced deeper back into Frisk's and Their combined SOUL. It was not uncomfortable. They laughed. Sure, They were disappointed, but at least They had had another chance for fun, and They didn't mind too much.

...

Hazel rushed forward to grab Frisk as they collapsed to the ground, Frank, Nico, and Percy close behind. Their sweater changed back to pajamas, their locket disappeared, and their eyes healed.

Sans was suddenly standing there helping to support them. He was shaking, but he tried to hold them up. He was actually more leaning on Hazel than he was helping, but the gesture was appreciated, nonetheless.

Frisk slowly became aware of their surroundings. They blinked and staggered backwards, falling weakly to the ground and tugging their chest. Sans, not having anything to hold onto, fell to the ground.

Frisk gasped and pulled themselves forward towards him. They made a series of frantic signs.

Sans gave them the thumbs up. "'m fine, this floor is just really comfortable." It was a hard marble floor, but when you were practically dead with magic overuse, anything was comfortable. " _marble_ more comfortable than our couch." That one was so stretched, it took Hazel a moment to get it.

Frisk scowled, but then hugged him, burying their face in his hoodie.

"hey, you got someone else to thank. i'm gonna take a little nap while you do that," he told them.

Frisk, who seemed to be regaining more strength, turned to them and took a deep breath. "Thank you."

Hazel jumped. She had not known they could talk.

"Uh... no problem?" Percy said.

"And, uh, thanks for working with Sans. I know he probably wasn't very nice, but that's just how he is... He doesn't like humans very much, so, sorry if he threatened you," they apologized. "He's not as nice as Papyrus, but he is a great friend." They looked to the ground. "And, I'm sorry you had to see me like that."

"It's not your fault," Hazel told them. "You didn't choose for that to happen to you."

Frisk stared thoughtfully into the distance. "But... you know... I think that... If I had a choice, I'd still let Chara be here."

The demigods stared.

Frank recovered first. "Why?"

Frisk laughed. "Well, I got to meet so many wonderful monsters and make so many friends because of Chara. And they aren't all bad. They do encourage me, and it's nice to never be alone. Sometimes, they make rude jokes, though." They giggled, like they were talking about a potty-mouth little kid, rather than a demon that could cause the end of the world.

"But I love Chara," Frisk told them. "I mean, don't get me wrong, they have to be suppressed. They are dangerous, and if it came down to letting someone innocent die, or them, I would have to say goodbye."

This child... so strange. But... maybe being able to see the good in another person was not a bad thing. Sure, it didn't mean the demigods should join hands with Empousai and sing Kumbaya, especially since many monsters they fought were irredeemably bad. But maybe... maybe they could try to find some of the nicer monsters, the different ones.

Frisk wiped their eyes, most of the blood coming away on their sleeve. "Wanna lie on the floor? Napstablook showed me a cool trick."

Hazel realized how tired she was, now that the adrenaline had worn off. The demigods shrugged and lay down.

She was surprised when the world turned to a void filled with bright stars, but she felt so relaxed.

'No wonder everyone likes this kid,' Hazel thought, yawning. 'One minute, you're fighting them to the death. The next, you're sitting on the floor and relaxing with them.'


	19. Skeleton, You Are My Friend

Frisk held up the trembling skeleton, trying to steady him. Despite the nap he had taken, he was still very weak. His left eye socket had been burnt by him using it too much, and the light in it refused to glow. He had told them he would just get Papyrus to heal it later, but it didn't matter very much since he was almost completely blind in his left eye, anyway.

However, in his right eye, there was a sort of glow that Frisk had very rarely seen. He was determined. And not just him; the other four kids glared forward with the same fierceness as they stood in the big room with the powerful strange beings that weren't monsters or humans.

Frisk stood upright and stayed determined, too. They were scared, sure, but they were not going to let it stop them from protecting monsters.

The silver-haired lady and another younger looking girl with black hair and camo clothes were talking to the rest of the beings in defense of the monsters. Frisk was not sure why they were looking at them so warily, but they decided to stay quiet. Sans was nodding off and starting to fall asleep, but Frisk shook him. They felt bad, though, as he was honestly exhausted, not just being lazy like usual.

"They are not what the mortals thought they were," the black-haired lady told them. "It was foolish of us to encourage that. It caused many deaths on both sides."

"But the prophecy foretold their leaders as causing death," the leader guy said. "And that child is the demon..."

Frisk became a bit defiant. Okay, yeah, they were a child, but they weren't dumb. And it sure was annoying when Mom talked about them like they weren't standing right next to her.

"But it also told of a Judge, Father, and that is the monster you see before you, who was foretold to protect the youth." She gestured to Sans, who was currently snoring with little Z's coming out of his nose.

Hazel pushed him.

He blinked, wincing a bit from his burnt socket, and shook his head. "sorry, i'm really tired. uh, yeah, judge. not what i like to be called, but that is me. personally, i thought i was done with that job, but sure."

"Just because we have a common enemy, monster, it does not mean we fight for you," the plant lady said.

"Frisk's not an enemy," Percy protested.

"eh..." Sans considered this. "except when, ya'know, people try to get rid of their dt and all. that can sorta mess up your willpower a little bit."

Frisk gripped his hoodie, partially from the bad memory, and partially from fear that he was going to get blasted to bits.

The beings glowered, except for the two women.

"You wanna get blasted to bits, punk?" a biker guy asked him angrily.

"Lord Ares, please don't. He's used all his magic," Hazel said.

"cool. i'm gonna take another nap, then," Sans agreed.

"Sans! Take this seriously for Mom and Papyrus, please!" Frisk shook his arm.

The determination crept back into his eye. "sorry, yeah." He turned to face the beings. "like your daughter, i guess, said, the monster war killed a lot of humans. i asked muffet and looked at lots of records. we just didn't get a chance to harvest the souls." His eye darkened. "here's another funny thing i didn't hear anybody mention: **the humans attacked the monsters first. Not the other way around."**

The teens' eyes widened. "Wait, but you said the monsters wanted power..." Nico stated.

Some of the beings had no change in expression, but others looked nervously around.

"huh, looks like you were afraid, then, you wanted a power you didn't have so badly, it made you blind," Sans chuckled darkly. He turned, still leaning on Frisk for support.

"i'm kinda tired and i want to go home, but i can assure you that if a monster ever kills a human to absorb their soul, we'll make them our enemy, too. and, inversely, if the humans ever attack the monsters... **well, I'm pretty sure I've absorbed SOULs in other timelines**." He stopped, his sneakers scuffing against the floor. Huh, normally he wore slippers. Weird.

"oh, and treat your... kids, better. last time i checked, children going on dangerous missions by themselves is usually not the best way to keep them... alive. i'll let you guys settle things between you. and if i never see or hear about you ever again, it'll be too soon."

Frisk followed him out, looking back one last time.

As soon as they were out of the room, Sans leaned against a column. "can't take a shortcut, kiddo, i'm really tired."

Frisk pulled a bandage out of their inventory (a fresh one) and put it over Sans' eye socket. It probably didn't do much, but he grinned regardless.

"heh, don't let Undyne see; she'll think i'm stealing her look."

Frisk signed. 'How do you know that they're their kids?'

"their souls are sort of similar. i feel really bad for them; being pressured by your parent sounds really hard…" a far-away look came into his eye. "buuuuuuuut, i wouldn't know anything about that!" He leaned on Frisk again. "let's go see if we can find a monster hotel or motel around. i could really go for some grub. or at least a hot dog stand we can steal some ketchup from."

Frisk giggled and led him down the path. When they had almost reached the elevator at the end, they were stopped by a shout.

"Hey! Wait up!" Percy yelled.

Frisk and Sans turned to see the group running towards them. "'up dog?"

Hazel frowned. "What's 'up dog'?"

"I dunno, whassup with you?!" he laughed, but then started coughing heavily.

The teens looked a little bit worried. "How are you going to get home?"

"well, i live in alaska, but i'm just gonna sleep until i have enough energy to look for a shortcut," Sans told them. "i'll take frisk back to the camp, then probably go back home with papyrus."

Frisk grabbed his arm. 'So soon?'

"i got some important slacking off to do on my job, frisk. but i promise dogamy i'd take you back up when dogaressa has her puppies. the dogi will have my skull if i don't."

"I can take you guys back," Nico said. "It's my fault you guys are here."

"well, i appreciate that, and i do think that whole teleporting thing you did was awesome," Sans said. "but are you sure it won't traumatize the youngin?"

Frisk scowled and elbowed him gently. "okay, fine, savior of monsters and whatnot. still, though, i didn't like it, and i was with your dog. wonder where she went..."

"How about some normal travel methods?" Nico suggested. "Like a bus?"

"Yeah, I definitely wouldn't recommend using the Labyrinth," Hazel said. Frisk wondered what the Labyrinth was. "The more people there are, the harder it is to navigate."

"I'd rent a car, but I don't have enough money," Percy said.

"i've got some cash." Sans pulled out big wad. "but i get to drive. after all, you guys are like, what, barely sixteen?"

"How old are you?" Frank asked defiantly.

"i'm twenty-eight," he replied coolly. Frisk was not sure why they all seemed so surprised at this.

"what, just 'cause i'm short and immature i'm automatically young? growing up is optional, you know."

...

The ride back to the camp was relatively uneventful. Before they had started, Sans had called up Toriel to tell her he had found Frisk. He said that Nico had just wanted to show Frisk some of the magic humans possessed, and they had accidentally ended up a little too far away from home. Then he found Hazel, Frank, and Percy on the beach and they went to look for them. "i really hate lying..." he sighed once he hung up.

It took almost the whole night to get back, and Sans did make them take a pit stop so he could sleep, but when they finally arrived at the camp, Nico was not sure he had ever seen a more joyous reunion.

Toriel and Asgore were sobbing and hugging Frisk together, despite how they didn't always seem to get along; Papyrus and Undyne were doing a weird dance that resembled a more violent version of Ring-Around-the-Rosie with a reluctant Jason, Piper and Alphys, and Muffet and the spiders were swinging around and hanging purple threads like streamers. Nico was pretty sure he saw that white dog from earlier jumping around, too, but he wasn't quite sure.

This went on until a rabbit lady called out of her window that it was way too early to be screaming so loudly. Apparently, they hadn't told the rest of the camp that Frisk was missing.

Undyne, Alphys, and Muffet went to the cabin they shared while Papyrus took Sans inside so he could tend to his eye. Sans sat on the table like he was in a doctor's office. "HONESTLY SANS, I'D THINK YOU OF ALL PEOPLE WOULD LEARN TO BE MORE CAREFUL!"

"that _burns,_ bro."

"SANS!" He examined his eye before laying his hand on it. His right eye glowed orange and faint white energy came from his hand. "HOW DID YOU EVEN BURN YOURSELF THIS BADLY?"

i tripped... into a volcano. i'd _lava_ to tell you the whole story, but _eye_ pain to even bring it to mind," Sans joked.

"SANS!" Papyrus tightened his grip on Sans' skull.

"haha, okay, i won't crack puns anymore when you're healing me! that really does hurt!" Sans exclaimed, whimpering slightly.

"SERVES YOU RIGHT..." Papyrus's gaze softened. "I CAN HEAL IT MOST OF THE WAY, BUT IT'LL STILL LOOK FUNNY FOR A WHILE. IS THAT OKAY?"

He blinked his eyes a few times and his left pupil reappeared, a little more dim than his right, but still present. "'s fine, bro." Sans jumped off the table. "oh, yeah, nico hurt himself, too. I think he cracked a rib. can you heal that?"

"BUT OF COURSE! SOMETHING LIKE THAT IS TOO EASY FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS! HOLD STILL, HUMAN." He made Nico hold his arms up and gently ran a gloved hand down Nico's side. His right eye glowed again.

Nico was surprised out how quickly and painless it was. It just felt like it had been snapped back together.

"NYEH, HEH, HEH," Papyrus chuckled good-naturedly. "DON'T DO ANY STRENUOUS ACTIVITIES, HUMAN!"

"Wow... Thanks..." Nico said. He grimaced. "Uh... sorry for... um..."

Papyrus waved his hand to the side. "THAT'S OKAY! SOMETIMES, I THINK UNDYNE'S TRYING TO KILL ME! AND..." he trailed off, suddenly deep in thought. "SOMETIMES..."

Sans' eyes momentarily betrayed his alarm. "something wrong bro?"

"HUH? OH, DON'T REMEMBER! IT WAS JUST A WEIRD DEJA VU FEELING!" Papyrus grinned.

"haha, yeah, those suck." He yawned. "i'm super tired, so i'm gonna sleep. i think we should start packing to go home tomorrow."

"AW, SO SOON?" Papyrus said. "WELL, I GUESS YOU DO HAVE YOUR JOB..."

When Sans headed up the stairs, Papyrus turned to face Nico.

"LISTEN. I KNOW MY BROTHER ISN'T REALLY GOING TO TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED. AND HE PROBABLY TOLD YOU NOT TO TELL ME, EITHER," Papyrus said seriously. "BUT, BE HONEST; DID HE CAUSE THAT?" Papyrus pointed to his formerly broken rib.

No answer was answer enough.

Papyrus sighed. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH HIM... HE TREATS ME LIKE A CHILD, AND IT KIND OF HURTS... ALWAYS GOING OFF ON HIS OWN, AND NOW THIS?"

Nico thought on that. "Hey, man, your brother is a good person. He... I definitely deserved that. And we made up. He kept me from getting hurt any worse."

Papyrus grimaced. "ALRIGHT. I... UH, I HAVE TO GO."

He headed out the door. Nico marveled at him. Sure, he seemed silly and naive, but he wasn't dumb...

He felt kinda sorry for him, mostly because he reminded Nico a bit of himself when he was younger.

Hopefully, the same thing that had happened to him and Bianca would never happen between the brothers.


	20. The End?

**IF YOU DO NOT READ THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE, YOU MIGHT REGRET IT.**

 **Ah, posting the last chapter while listening to Invader Zim OSTs. A great thing, that never got an ending.**

 **Okay! Final chapter. Thanks for sticking through the whole Chara ordeal. It was a pain for me and Blue to sort out. Chara might be gone, but I think the dog is still somewhere around here... we weren't able to catch him.**

 **THIS DOESN'T BELONG TO CHI! SHE SIMPLY IS TOO LAZY TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING ON HER OWN!**

 **oh, and chi wants you to type your favorite scene in a review. if she gets enough inspo, she might actually stop being lazy and draw something.**

 **Edit: Drew something on my Deviantart, TearsofCHIckenSoup. Might draw another, smaller one sometime soon.**

 **...**

It was a bit of a sad day for both parties. The monsters were all a bit tearful.

Muffet gave Annabeth a big ball of purple silk for weaving and knitting, as well as a basket of spider snacks. Toriel gave them the last of the Butterscotch Cinnamon tarts.

"But don't eat too many, children, or else your parents will complain about me giving you cavities," Toriel said.

The demigods decided not to mention that their parents were currently only not killing the monsters because of Hera and Artemis.

A certain was currently snoozing against a tree, and was the only monster who didn't seem very sad about their departure.

"SANS!" Papyrus nudged him. "DON'T BE SO RUDE!"

"mm, what? oh, sorry, bro." He yawned. "be careful, and all. goodbye..." **"Forever, I guess."**

Since the other monsters showed no signs of alarm, Hazel guessed that he had just said this to the demigods.

Frisk went up to Piper and handed her a piece of paper. Piper accepted it gratefully. Frisk grinned and gave a little curtsy. Piper bowed, then hugged the child.

Undyne punched Nico in the gut. He gasped weakly. "And be grateful I didn't do worse! But, you're an okay kid." She gave him a noogie.

"NO HURTING THE DEATH CHILD," Papyrus scolded.

"Eh, shut up." She punched him in the ribcage and forced noogies upon him.

"NO HURTING THE SKELETON!"

All the monsters, not just the ones they had come to grow closer to over the past few days waved goodbye as they left the camp.

As they made the long drive back to New York, Hazel thought on the experiences she had just been through.

She had never felt superior to a mortal, but she had often felt as though she was a little more educated in the ways of the world than most. And she was. But now, she was beginning to question where that knowledge was coming from.

Their own father had wanted to kill an innocent kid so that they could eliminate a race of innocent monsters? Maybe they had had some of the mortal's best interests at heart, but still.

Hazel sighed. She hated to admit it, but she now trusted the gods less than ever. At least some of them still had the right idea...

Piper looked at the piece of paper. It had a date written on it. It was sometime in the middle of fall that year.

"What's that for?" Hazel asked.

"Oh, Frisk said that's when they want to go to Mettaton's hotel. They said they would try to get Papyrus and Undyne to come, too."

"I wonder what the gods would think of that. And what Sans would think."

"... I don't really want to know, after what you guys just told me. But, I'm not going to make the monsters my enemies after everything that just happened."

Hazel sighed. She nodded off, trying to get a little sleep on their long trip back. But she was interrupted.

She heard a noise from the back of the Jeep, and apparently she wasn't the only one, either.

Percy stopped the car and pulled it over to the side of the road.

The demigods nervously exchanged glances, before Jason pulled it open.

...

...

...

The white dog looked up in surprise from the tart it was devouring. It let out an annoying yap and dashed between their legs.

"It ate all the snacks!" Percy complained, holding up the empty basket.

Annabeth looked more closely.

"Uh, guys?" She held up a post-it note.

Hazel examined it.

It simply had two words on it. 'THE END.'

...

 _ **I knew that stupid dog was somewhere around here. Lousy, self-insert...**_

 **Demigods: Who are you?**

 _ **I am a perfectly normal human worm baby. You have nothing to fear from me. Oh, here's your friend.**_

 **Leo: Uh, anyone want to tell me what's with the talking poptart?**

 _ **Fool! *Twirls cane* This is not my true form. I am simply talking through the poptart. But... That's not why I'm here. I'm here because I need to give you guys some fanfictions. You get to dodge them.**_

 **Demigods: Wait, what?!**

 **Spectrum, 1nky, AO3. Gaster Blaster AU.**

 **Hazel: That one almost took off my head! What kind of fanfictions are these?!**

 _ **Violent ones.**_

 **Best of Times, Worst of Times, abadtime, AO3. Gaster Blaster AU. Language warning.**

 **Annabeth: Ouch. Lots of angst.**

 **Trust, spacegate, or Keetahspacecat or something. Baby Blaster AU.**

 **Leo: Why are you recommending this to people who are probably twelve years old? Do you even see how much implied abuse that has in it?!**

 _ **I see only my love for Gaster Blasters. But seriously, though, yeah, be careful.**_

 **What are Friends For? by Ichiwashername-o on Tumblr. It's a Gaster Blaster AU comic.**

 _ **Those are written by what are basically what I think of as the leaders of GB!AU. I plan on writing a GB!AU, but I don't know when I'll publish it.**_

 **Nico: Let's hope it's not as angsty as those.**

 _ **Don't hold your breath.**_

 **Okay, enough Gaster Blaster AU. Here's some other stuff:**

 **Flowey is not a Good Life Coach, Unrestedjade, AO3.** _ **Abuse and language, but an excellent,**_ _ **EXCELLENT**_ _ **fanfiction! Seriously, probably my favorite. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it had me in tears at one of the more recent chapters.**_

 **Jason: Seriously?**

 _ ***Sobs* Papyrus!**_

 **Invadertale, by Invadertale, Tumblr. Invader Zim and Undertale, of course. This one is currently very short, but I know that the author is still working on it. She's just very busy.**

 **Piper: That one's not so bad.**

 _ **Yeah… Well, I know she's capable of writing psychological horror and stuff, so IDK.**_

 **Be Careful Making Wishes in the Dark, by Jaywings, FF. Okay, this one doesn't actually have Undertale in it... It's Invader Zim/Gravity Falls, but it is written by the person who introduced me to Undertale, who also happens to be the creator of InvaderTale. Seriously, besides FINAGLC and Spectrum, it's probably my favorite.**

 _ **Just some body horror and Bill. Bill. *Snickers***_

 _ **MMKAY BYE! LOVE YOU GUYS! IMMA GONNA GO SLEEP NOW!**_

 **Percy: Oh, no you don't. Even if I can't get to you**

 _ **What are you doing?! Put my poptart down!**_

 **Percy: I can still get rid of this poptart!**

 _ **Wait no! Don't give me to the dog! Bad Toby! Ba-**_

 **BIG THANKS TO BLUEWEREWOLF25 FOR BEING MY BETA!**

 **AND TO VIEWERS LIKE YOU! THANK YOU!**

 **WE'LL MEET AGAIN, DON'T KNOW WHERE, DON'T KNOW WHEN! I KNOW WE'LL MEET AGAIN SOME SUNNY DAY!**


	21. No More Spiders Crawling On My Bed

**Hey, guys, you wanna know something? I forgot one really important part of the story, so, extra chapter. Lucky you.**

The seven demigods stood in the rec room of the big house, the same way they had stood there when it all started.

Chiron had finished listening to their story. He sighed. "I'll make sure to tell the other demigods to be careful and not kill these monsters."

"Sans said he wouldn't let any monsters kill humans. At least, not unless the humans made the first move," Nico stated.

They weren't sure how to feel about that. Sans seemed to consider them both human and not human, depending on the situation.

Chiron furrowed his brow in thought. "You said that the skeleton was the Judge. The child was obviously the Angel, and there was a Demon residing in them. But there is still something I cannot figure out." He looked over to the little scroll on the table. "I think we need to reread the prophecy."

Frank picked it up and recited from it, since he was the only one without dyslexia.

" _Six leaders of death_

 _Friends of the foe_

 _Should they conquer all_

 _The world fills with woe_

 _Beware of the verses_

 _Poison tells truth_

 _The Judge will guide you_

 _As he protects youth_

 _Choose to spare or fight_

 _Remember what is right_

 _Should the Angel be forced to fall_

 _Demon's darkness devours all."_

Chiron listened to it. "We have already discovered the role of the Judge, Angel, and Demon. The poison was the retribution you suffered from. But that does not explain the first stanza. If the monsters conquered you, they wouldn't have killed you; they would have simply sent you back. The world would not have filled with woe."

Annabeth narrowed her eyes. "And they certainly weren't friends of the foe. I don't know who the foe was."

Chiron looked up, sadly. "I'm afraid I may." He took a deep breath. "The only answer I can come to is that 'The Leaders of Death' were you, and the 'Foe' was the gods."

The demigods gaped. Percy recovered first. "But…" Percy tried to find some evidence that would disprove this. He really did. But everything seemed to line up perfectly.

Hazel glanced to the ceiling, cautiously, as though looking out from under an umbrella. "But that would mean…"

Chiron put his head in his hands. "We will not speak of this, but I advise you to take the prophecies with caution. More damage was almost caused than was healed. Please, be careful. And… Even if the Judge does not want you to return, I advise you to keep in contact with the rest of the monsters. You may need their help one day."

The demigods nodded, and exited. They each headed to their respective cabins.

Annabeth lay on her bunk and stared up at the ceiling. Everyone else was asleep, but though she was exhausted, she could seem to let her eyes close. She turned on her phone, which she normally kept hidden from the rest of her cabin mates.

She smiled when she found a badly taken video of Muffet weaving on a loom. She looked so happy, little black droplets forming in the corners of her eyes, and spiders dancing and clapping, somehow, all around. The next picture depicted Undyne burying Papyrus in sand, and sticking sunglasses where his arms would be. Finally, there was a picture of them all, waving goodbye.

Annabeth sighed and turned it off.

She turned over, ready to finally get some sleep.

Instead, she found a donut on a plate. She heard a tiny scuttling noise heading quickly away.

She picked it up, and saw there was a note underneath.

'Thank you, dearie. I know that in the future, we may not meet under such pleasant circumstances, but you're always welcome at my bakery.'

Annabeth regarded the note a minute. She wondered about the other note that the dog had left. What had 'The End' even meant? The end of their friendship? Or maybe… the end of their quest? But she had never been on a quest that hadn't had another part to it.

Muffet was right. If they were eventually going to fight either with or against the monsters, Annabeth needed to make sure she chose very carefully which side she was on.

She bit into the donut. It tasted like spiders. Magic spiders.

…..

 **Okay, dudes, not sure if I'll ever make a sequel. It depends on how Magnus Chase goes. With luck, I will, and I'll combine it with my Gravity Falls/PJ fanfiction I made a while ago, but that will probably take a while, possibly several years.**

 **(It depends on if Nidhogg is the villain of MC. Seriously, the main villain of PJ wasn't Hades, it was Chronos. The main villain of CK wasn't Set, it was Apophis. The main villain of HoO wasn't the giants, it was Gaea. It would totally make sense if the main villain was Nidhogg, not Loke.)**

 **Seriously, though, thanks for the love. I want to thank everyone who left me with 293 reviews (and hopefully some more on this last chapter). Also, suggestions are still open for art. The coverpic was the only thing I've made so far, but there's still a chance I'll draw another scene.**

 **I will probably not write for a while, as I have a lot of art I will be doing, and I also have an insanely busy work and school schedule. I might start publishing again once the summer starts, but in the meantime, the only chance will be my Easter break.**

 **Have a good Easter, or Passover, or whatever.**


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